Glass 

Book 

Copyright}! 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Story of Our Bible 



By 

EMMA A. ROBINSON 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATONAND MAINS 



COPY RIGHT, igil, 
BY EMMA A. ROBINSON 



©CI.A303434 



INSCRIBED TO THE FRIEND 

Jfclk ^oss Jforb 



WHOSE APPRECIATION OF THE VALUE OF THIS STUDY FOR 
BOYS AND GIRLS HAS BEEN AN INSPIRATION IN 
THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK 



INTRODUCTION 



The Bible is the most important book in the 
world, the most useful book in the world, and the 
most interesting book in the world. Everything 
about it is interesting, the history of its produc- 
tion and its transmission to us not least of all. 
Miss Robins.on has told something of this history 
in this little book. May the boys and girls for 
whom it was written be led by it to see something 
of the marvelous providence by which the Bible 
was given to us and by which it has been pre- 
served to our time. May they be led to revere the 
Book more highly for its ancient worth and its 
present value. May they read it and study it for 
themselves until they*come to love it as Origen 
and Jerome and Martin Luther and Wycliffe and 
Tyndale did. May they find themselves becoming 
proficient and efficient and sufficient in spiritual 
things as they master the contents of this book 
and of The Book. In that way only will the writ- 
ing of the book find its due reward. 

D. A. Hayes, 
Professor of New Testament Exegesis, 
Garrett Biblical Institute. 

5 



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION 



This book is written not with a thought of 
giving to the reader anything new on the subject, 
but only for the purpose of telling this wonderful 
story in a way that shall make it intelligible to 
those not versed in the phraseology of the textual 
critic and of interest to the boys and girls of the 
Junior age. The writer believes that familiarity 
with this story in its details is one of the best safe- 
guards that can be given boys and girls just at 
this age, when they are great readers and must 
come in contact through the daily press and peri- 
odicals with many comments and articles in re- 
gard to the text of the Bible which, however val- 
uable to the critic, can but raise questions in the 
minds of the young people. The ground thus pre- 
empted during Junior years will be guarded 
against many doubts and questions that will arise 
in the minds of the youth of adolescent age. 

As this book is intended for the use of the 
Junior League, some special class work is sug- 
gested at the close of each lesson. The purpose 
of this is to help the boys and girls to recognize 
the fact that while God has used human instru- 
mentality in the giving of His Word to us, and 

7 



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION 



that while errors may have crept into the text, 
His all-wise providence and care has been around 
about His Word and so shielded it that not one 
great truth is in any way marred by these errors, 
and that God's message has come safely down to 
us through all the ages because He has cared 
for it and guarded it against all possibility of 
change. 

As a result of this study it is believed that the 
Juniors will come to have a deeper reverence for 
God's Word, and unwavering faith in its divinity, 
and an intelligent understanding of the method 
through which the Bible has been preserved for us. 

In the writing of this book the author is 
greatly indebted to the book "How We Get Our 
Bible," by Patterson Smith, from which many 
quotations have been made; to Gregory's "Canon 
of the Scriptures," and to Professor Doremus A. 
Hayes, S. T. D., Professor of New Testament 
Exegesis in Garrett Biblical Institute. 



8 



CONTENTS 



Chapter Page 

I. The Bibles of To-Day, - - - n 

II. The Writing of the Bible, - - 17 

III. The Latin Vulgate, - - - 28 

IV. Early Translations, - - - 33 
V. The Bible of Wycliffe, - - - 41 

VI. The Bible of Tyndale, - - - 47 

VII. Bibles Between Tyndale' s and the King 

y James Version, - - - 57 

VIII. The King James Version, - 64 

IX. Ancient Manuscripts Recently Discovered, 73 

X. The Revised Bible of To-Day, - - 83 

XI. Interesting Facts About the Bible, 94 

XII. Our Bible, 104 

9 



THE ANVIL OF GOD'S WORD 



Last eve I paused before a blacksmith's door 
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime; 

Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor 

Old hammers worn with beating years of time. 

"How many anvils have you had," said I, 
"To wear and batter all these hammers so?" 

"Just one," he answered ; then, with twinkling eye, 
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know." 

And so, I thought, the anvil of God's Word 
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon; 

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard, 
The anvil is unworn — the hammers gone. 



Chapter I 



THE BIBLES OF TO-DAY 

"But now abideth faith, "But now abideth faith, 

hope, love, these three; but hope, charity; but the 

the greatest of these is greatest of these is charity." 

love." i Cor. 13:13. 1 Cor. 13:13- 

Side by side some one has written the two 
verses; both are marked 1 Corinthians 13:13, 
but they are not alike. Is the reference a mistake, 
or what does it mean? Are there two Bibles? If 
the Bible is God's word, what right has any one 
to make a different Bible? Where did the Bible 
come from? How did we get it? 

These and many other questions are asked, not 
alone by boys and girls, but by people of all ages. 

Where did we get our Bible? 

Before answering that question, let us make 
a visit to Ellis Island and watch the emigrants as 
they land. Their ships are anchored off Long 
Island, and the tug brings them to the Government 
Inspection Building on Ellis Island. They have 
crossed the gang-plank and come up the broad 
stairway. They pass through the narrow aisles, are 

11 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



inspected by the doctors, who look them over and 
examine their eyes, then passed by the agents of 
the Government, who must find out if they have 
money enough to live on till they get to work, 
and other things that are required. They now 
follow the guards down to the railroad offices, 
where they secure their tickets to the places to 
which they wish to go, and are turned over to 
the railroad agents who are to look after them. 
Yonder in the corner of this room stands a book- 
case, near it a jovial representative of the Ameri- 
can Bible Society. Watch him as a new detach- 
ment of emigrants enter the room. He listens 
a minute, then turns to the bookcase, and as a 
German lad passes he receives a copy of the Gos- 
pel of John. See his face brighten as he opens 
it and sees the words in his native language! 

Next comes an Italian woman and her little 
family. What good will a German copy of the 
Gospel do her? But the smile on her face shows 
that she reads the words in her own beautiful 
Italian. 

Our interest increases as we see Spaniards, 
Frenchmen, and Russians, yes, even Japanese, 
each reading from God's Book in his native 
tongue. Later we learn that in that bookcase 
John 3:16 may be found in twenty-eight differ- 
ent languages. 

Should we ask the agent where he found so 
many different Bibles, he would answer in the one 

12 



THE BIBLES OF TO-DAY 



word "translations," and would add that every 
emigrant entering our ports receives a copy of 
one of the Gospels in his own tongue. That is 
his welcome to our country. 

From here we return to New York and visit 
that great building known as the American Bible 
House. One might spend many hours watching 
the making of the plates, the printing, sewing, 
binding, and gilding of the edges of the Bibles 
of all sizes. How easy it would be to get a let- 
ter in the wrong place or even to get the pages 
mixed, but each worker works with greatest care 
that there may not be one error. 

Here are Bibles large and Bibles small; beauti- 
fully bound, leather-covered Bibles; Bibles that 
cost but a few cents; also Bibles that we can not 
read; and we learn that parts of the Bible are 
translated into over four hundred languages and 
dialects. Here, too, one hears the wonderful 
story of the missionaries who, going to the savage 
tribes and wishing to tell them of Jesus, find that 
they have no words in their language in which to 
tell the story of God's love. They must first in- 
vent words, then tell the story. But this is not all. 
These savages have no way of writing, no written 
language as it is called, and before these stories 
can be printed for them a writing must be made 
up; yet to-day they have parts of the Bible printed 
in a language that they can understand, because 
the missionaries have learned to speak and write 

13 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



as they speak, and then have translated the Bible 
for them. 

But there is another visit we must make. This 
time we will go to the great Public Library. Here 
we find one section marked "Library for the 
Blind." The librarian will show us some of those 
queer books that to us mean nothing; but once 
more we will find the Bible, this time printed in 
raised letters: the Bible which is read by touch, 
not sight. 

Is it the same Bible? Exactly; and John 3:16 
tells to the blind, the foreigner, and the savage, as 
it does to us, the message, u For God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth on Him should not per- 
ish, but have eternal life." 

There is another strange thing about this Bible 
of ours. We call it a Book, and yet we talk about 
the Book of Psalms and the Book of Romans or 
the Book of Revelation. What does it mean? 
Just this. The word Bible does not mean a book, 
but it means books. Our Bible is not a book, but 
a library, with its sixty-six volumes put into one 
binding, thus making one book of it. 

Sometimes the books of the New Testament 
are bound together, making a volume by them- 
selves. Sometimes the books are grouped and 
bound into a number of volumes, or they may 
each be bound separately, but the binding or form 

H 



THE BIBLES OF TO-DAY 



makes no difference; they are still God's Word, 
our Bible. 

Again we hear of the Letters of Paul, the 
Psalms of David, or the Gospel of John, and 
ask: Is not the Bible God's book? What, then, 
is meant by the Gospel of John? [ Just this, that 
God gave His Word to us through men who lived 
on the earth and did just the things that we do. 
He did not give it all to one man nor all at one 
time, but to over forty men; kings, priests, law- 
yers, teachers, shepherds, and fishermen were 
among the men to whom He gave the messages 
of this Book, and these men lived and wrote at 
different times through a period of many hun- 
dreds of years. 

Before that time God's Word was spoken to 
men, who taught it to their children, and they to 
their children, so that at the very beginning God's 
Word was written in the hearts and minds of the 
people instead of on paper. But through all these 
years God was taking care of it, that to-day we 
might have His message just as truly and clearly 
as at the time that He gave it. " The word of 
our God shall stand forever." 

Class Work. — Copy i Corinthians 13: 13 and 
Matthew 5:15 from Authorized and Revised 
Versions in parallel columns. 

If there are members of the class who speak 
a foreign language, ask them to recite a verse in 

15 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 

that language ; then have it recited or read in Eng- 
lish. 

Suggestive Helps, — The sample leaflet of 
John 3:16 in many languages, published by the 
American Bible Society, New York. Page of 
Bible for the Blind. 



16 



Chapter II 



THE WRITING OF THE BIBLE 

It is easy to see how the Japanese and the 
Hindoos have received their Bible, because the 
missionaries have gone to them from America 
and could translate the Bible into their languages; 
but that brings us back to the two English Bibles. 
Where did they come from? 

In Matthew 5:3 we read, '"Blessed are the 
poor in spirit, for they shall see God." These are 
the words spoken by Jesus ; but did He speak them 
in English? No; Jesus was a Hebrew; He could 
speak the Hebrew language and read from the 
Hebrew Bible, which is our Old Testament; but 
even when Jesus was a boy, Hebrew was almost 
a dead language, and He learned to speak and 
read it much as we do the Latin and Greek to-day. 

In His home and among His friends He spoke 
what was called the Aramaic language; but this 
was the language of the people who, we would 
say, had not been to high school or college, and 
when the words that He spoke were put into 
writing they were written in Greek, although it 

17 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



is believed that Matthew wrote them in the He- 
brew language; and later they were translated into 
the Greek. The Lord's Prayer would then look 
like this, and might have been spoken by Jesus 
in just these words: 

vpiis 

Uarep r}fiu>i/ 6 iv tois ovpavols* 
1 AyicKrOrjTo* to ovofia o~ov, 
iXOciTco rj ftaaikela o-ov, 
y(vr]0rjT(t) to 6fKr)jxd crov 9 

(os iv ovpavco k(A int yrjs' 
Tov aprov tJ/xcoz/ tov iiriovcriov 

fios qpiv arjfiepov 
Kai d<fies rifxiv tu 6<p€iKrjp.aTa 77/xcoi/, 

(os ko\ T^/xetff d<firjKafx€V toIs dfaiXfTCtis rjp.(ov* 
Kai firj clo'CviyKTjS rjyids (Is Treipao-piOVy 

dWa pvcrai f}p.as dno tov irovqpov* 

And when James and John said that prayer, after 
Jesus went back to heaven, they too probably said 
it in the Greek language, for at that time most of 
the Jews spoke Greek. 

When Jesus went back to Nazareth to visit, 
Luke says, in the fourth chapter and seventeenth 
verse, that "He stood up to read, and there was de- 
livered unto Him the Book of the Prophet Isaiah." 
From what kind of a Bible did He read? It 
might have been either a Greek or a Hebrew 
Bible; for since the children of Israel, even as 
early as when they came out of Egypt, were known 

18 



THE WRITING OF THE BIBLE 



as Hebrews and spoke the Hebrew language their 
Bible was written in the Hebrew; yet three hun- 
dred years before Christ the Greek had become 
the language of commerce, and as the Hebrews 
were always a commercial people and started col- 
onies in many places, they gradually came to speak 
the Greek language. 

The strict Hebrews, or Jews, especially those 
in Palestine, still used the Hebrew in the syna- 
gogue service, yet many of those who settled in 
other countries could not understand the Hebrew 
in which the Old Testament books were written. 
The rabbis could read it, but that did not help 
the people. Many of these thought that they 
ought to have a Bible that they could read; so, 
about two hundred years before Jesus read from 
the Book of Isaiah; in the city of Alexandria in 
Egypt, a committee of seventy men was appointed 
to translate the books of the Old Testament into 
the Greek language. This version of the Bible 
is called the Septuagint Version, because of the 
number of the men who helped in the translation. 

It was not easy to translate from the Hebrew 
language, but it had not been easy to write it, 
either. The translators would begin at the upper 
right-hand corner of the page and at what we 
would call the back of the book. The first verse 
of Genesis would look like this: 



19 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



Look carefully at the letters. Do you see how 
very much alike they are, and how easy it would 
be to think n was n, and make a different word 
of it? Or if in the word d^? the lower dot were 
a little indistinct, it would make the letter "a" 
instead of "e," and again we would have another 
word. 

"In the Hebrew language there are certain 
pairs of letters very similar in form, as for in- 
stance: i (w) and i (y) ; i (r) and i (d) ; 
j (b) and a (k) ; rt (ch) and rf (h). Avery 
good illustration of the confusion of t and 1 oc- 
curs in Psalm 22 : 16, in the last part of the verse. 
The present Hebrew Bible reads nw, which 
translated gives, "like a lion my hands and feet," 
which clearly is not sense. But the earliest trans- 
lations from the Hebrew text, such for example 
as the Septuagint (a Greek translation made from 
a Hebrew text at least twelve hundred years older 
than the one we now have), read the text thus: 
n&o , which means "they pierced my hands and 
feet." This is, of course, correct, and has been 
accepted by our translators, although the word in 
the Hebrew Bible, as we now have it, is hH5- 
Clearly in the process of copying a manuscript 
some scribe has, by mistake, shortened 1 to 1. 

"Then, sometimes, when a scribe was having a 
manuscript read to him he might confuse words 
of similar sound. An example of this may be 
found in Isaiah 9:3. There are two little He- 

20 



THE WRITING OF THE BIBLE 



brew words of similar sound, and rather like each 
other, too, in appearance, but very different in 
meaning; viz., «'S (not) and ft (to it), and 
the question here is, which of these ought to be 
in the text. If we read *ft, which appears in the 
present Hebrew text, we have, "Thou hast multi- 
plied the nation; Thou hast not increased the joy." 
This seems like a contradiction of what goes be- 
fore and follows. The editors of the Hebrew 
Bibles in the tenth century evidently thought there 
was an error here, for they placed ft in the 
margin. The text then reads, "Thou hast mul- 
tiplied the nation; Thou hast increased its joy." 
And this is the rendering adopted by our Revised 
Version. Yet when we examine the Hebrew man- 
uscripts extant we find that they all have vh. But 
we can see plainly how this came about. The 
original manuscript no doubt had ft; but the 
scribe in copying had his manuscript read to him, 
and vh , being exactly the same in sound, was 
written for ft. 

"The similarity of 1 and n, which were con- 
tinually being mistaken, the one for the other, has 
occasioned some strange errors. There is a dis- 
puted reading in 2 Samuel 8:13 which very well 
illustrates this confusion. It tells of David "smit- 
ing of Syria ( dik') in the valley of Salt 18,000 
men." Now, this is certainly a mistake, for the 
valley of Salt was in Edom, not Syria. And when 
we turn to the corresponding passage in 1 Chron- 

21 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



icles 1 8 : 12 we read (referring to the same event) 
that "Abishai (David's general), the son of Ze- 
ruiah, smote of Edom (dik") in the valley of 
Salt, 18,000 men." How did this error in 2 Sam- 
uel arise? In English the words "Syria" and 
"Edom" are very dissimilar, but notice the simi- 
larity of the Hebrew forms: 

DiN=A e R a M=Syria. 
cnx— A e D M=Edom. 

Plainly some scribe mistook i for i . 

"Illustrations could also be given of the omis- 
sion of a whole line in copying a manuscript. 
After writing the last word of a line, and looking 
back to his manuscript, the scribe's eye would 
sometimes catch the same word at the end of the 
next line, and he would go on from that, omitting 
the whole line between. Remarks and explana- 
tions written in the margin were also sometimes 
inserted in the text by mistake. 

"These illustrations will suffice to show how, 
on the human side, some errors crept into the man- 
uscripts of our Bible in the course of the cen- 
turies."* 

You can see it would be very, very hard to 
translate this and get it exactly right, and yet you 
would be surprised to know how few mistakes 
were made. 

This Septuagint Bible was the one from which 



*A. P. Misener. 

22 



THE WRITING OF THE BIBLE 



Jesus may have read, and from which Peter and 
James may have learned their verses when they 
were boys. Paul, too, probably read from this 
Bible, though he could also read from the He- 
brew Bible. 

The words of Christ which are found in the 
Gospels were spoken by Him in the Aramaic lan- 
guage to the people who came to hear Him, and 
after He had gone back to heaven were put into 
writing by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It 
is believed that Matthew was such a strict Jew 
that his Gospel was first written in the Hebrew 
language and then translated into the Greek. 

The Epistles, or letters, of the New Testa- 
ment are the parts of the Bible of whose writing 
we know the most. The words, " Rejoice always; 
pray without ceasing," found in i Thessalonians 
5:16, 17, were not spoken to the people, as were 
the words of Jesus, "Lo, I am with you always" 
(Matt. 28:20). Paul was far away from the 
Church at Thessalonica, but he wanted to send a 
message to his followers there. He did not have 
a stenographer or a typewriter, but he sent for a 
man named Tertius, and to him he spoke the 
words, which Tertius wrote down. 

But first Tertius must get ready. He will ask 
Paul whether his letter is to be a long or short one. 
Then he must get his materials together. He may 
buy his paper in sheets about a foot square, in 
which case he will glue the sheets together in a 

23 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



long strip, either before he writes or after; or he 
may buy them all glued together into a strip and 
rolled on a stick or roll. 

But what odd paper! It is called papyrus 
and is made from reeds found in the river. These 
reeds are cut into pieces a foot long and split open. 
They are then flattened out to make strips about 
an inch wide. These are glued together, and an- 
other layer running crosswise laid on top of them 
and carefully glued down. When all is dry, the 
rough edges of the reeds will be rubbed down, 
leaving the sheet smooth and beautiful. This 
makes a paper on which it is easy to write, but the 
little fibers of the wood break easily and thus 
make the paper very delicate. 

Having his paper, Tertius must next look 
after his pens. These he will make by pointing 
another kind of reed. He will probably prepare 
several of these, as the letter is to be a long one. 
With his can of ink made from lamp-black, or 
some dye, strapped about his waist, he is now 
ready for work and returns to Paul. 

As Paul speaks the words, Tertius writes them ; 
but it is slow work, and he probably will have to 
come several times. 

When the letter is finished it is rolled up on 
a roller at each end and placed, probably, in a 
small wooden case. 

Paul must now find some one who is going 
to Thessalonica by whom he can send the letter 

24 



THE WRITING OF THE BIBLE 



to the Bishop of the Church there, as there Is no 
postal or mail service. The journey takes several 
weeks, perhaps months; but at last the letter is 
delivered. 

When the Sabbath comes one stands up in the 
Church and reads this letter to the people, un- 
rolling it from one end and rolling it up at the 
other as he reads, just as Jesus read the Book of 
Isaiah. All or parts of it are read on many Sab- 
baths. Possibly some Sabbath a man from Cor- 
inth may be in the audience. He hears the let- 
ter and asks if he may take it to Corinth and 
read it to his Church. The Bishop may say "Yes" 
or he may say, "Some of the little fibers in the 
paper are beginning to break from handling, and 
some words are not distinct, but you may have 
a copy made." 

The man from Corinth must now find a copy- 
ist, who, after getting his materials as Tertius has 
done, at once goes to work. 

This copyist remembers all the rules that the 
rabbis gave about making mistakes in copying the 
old Hebrew Bible, and he works very carefully, 
but he comes to a place where the fiber is broken. 
There is a letter he can not read. It might be 
any one of two or three letters, but each would 
make a different word. He finally decides upon 
what he thinks it is, and in the margin writes, 
"That word might have been the other word" 
(giving the word). He may have no further 



25 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



trouble, or he may overlook a word and leave it 
out. The copy is finished, and the letter goes to 
Corinth. 

But in time this copy of Paul's letter becomes 
worn and the Church at Corinth must have it again 
copied. Another copyist is found. He comes to 
the same word, but he is sure that the word the 
first man put in the margin is the correct one and 
he puts it in, so that these very first copies are not 
exactly alike. 

If you had read this letter in just the way 
it was written, the verses given would look like 
this: 

REJOICEALWAYSPRAYWITHOUTCEASING 

All letters capitals, no division between words or 
sentences, no punctuation marks. Would it mot 
be very easy to omit a letter or get one out of 
place? There would probably be three or four 
columns to a page, and possibly in some places at 
the end of a line the letters will be only about half 
the size of the other letters, so as to get the whole 
of the word on the line. Or the word may be 
divided, one or two letters being on the next line. 

Class Work. — Ask each member of the class 
to copy a verse from the Bible (each a different 
verse), pass papers to the right, and each make a 
copy from the copy, passing his copy on to the 
next. Continue this till the verse has been copied 
from one copy, and then a copy copied five or six 

26 



THE WRITING OF THE BIBLE 



times. Have verses read and compared with the 
original verse. 

Suggestive Helps. — Write the verse given in 
the chapter, or another, on a large sheet of manila 
paper, using capital letters and no spacings. Let 
some member of the class volunteer to read it. 
Ask another to come to the board and copy it 
rapidly. Finally let some one draw lines between 
the letters so as to mark off the words. 

Have the first verse of the Lord's Prayer in 
Greek and the first verse in Genesis in the Hebrew 
put upon the first sheet of the roll. 

(Prepare a roll by mounting large sheets of 
heavy manila paper on a curtain roller, or use the 
reverse side of the picture rolls prepared for the 
Primary Department of the Sunday school. This 
will enable you to keep the suggestions for refer- 
ence.) 



27 



Chapter III 



THE LATIN VULGATE 

When one reads from a scroll he unrolls it 
with one hand, and as fast as he reads, rolls it up 
with the other. In this way a book written on 
this frail papyrus soon wears out, and it would be 
very surprising if before the end of the first cen- 
tury not only the letters of Paul and the other 
letter writers, but also the books of the Gospels 
were not entirely worn out, those used in the 
Churches being copies, some even having been 
copied the second time. The Churches having 
these copies did not think the first copies were of 
any use, so they did not take care of them. 

In the same way the Hebrew Old Testament 
and the Septuagint Old Testament were copied 
many times, and the old copies lost or destroyed, 
so that to-day no one has been able to find one of 
these first copies or any copy made during the first 
three hundred years after the New Testament 
books were written. 

The use of the papyrus for writing material 
required so much of it that the reeds did not grow 
fast enough, and by the end of the first century 

28 



THE LATIN VULGATE 



the supply was about exhausted. By the third or 
fourth century vellum was generally used. This 
was a beautiful soft leather made from the skin 
of the young antelope. 

In the ninth century a coarse brown paper took 
the place of the vellum. Thus, in a general way, 
the age of a manuscript may be ascertained by the 
material on which it is written. 

But there are other ways of telling the age of 
a manuscript. The earliest manuscripts were writ- 
ten in the uncial or inch-long letters, without capi- 
tals, punctuation, or divisions of any kind. About 
the tenth century the letters changed in form and 
were called cursives. These were smaller and 
slanted. With the use of the cursives we also find 
many beautiful illuminated initial letters, a few of 
these illuminated letters being found as early as 
the fourth century. The latter part of the fourth 
century a space of one letter was sometimes left 
to mark a change of subject. In the fifth century 
every fiftieth line was marked. 

While nearly all the world could speak Greek 
at this time, there were places where it was neither 
understood nor spoken, and Christianity had trav- 
eled to these places. These people, too, wanted a 
Bible that they could read. In Northern Africa 
the Bible was translated into Latin, and from 
there carried to Northern Italy; but these trans- 
lations were far from correct. 

Strangely enough, in Rome, Greek was the 



29 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



language of the people till after the third century. 
Gradually the Latin took its place, until in the 
fourth century a Latin Bible was demanded. The 
Latin translations of Northern Africa were so in- 
correct that a new translation was made by Jerome, 
the Old Testament being translated, not from the 
Greek Septuagint, but directly from the Hebrew 
manuscripts. Jerome may not have had the orig- 
inal copies of the Old or the New Testament, but 
used the best manuscripts of his day. 

Right here comes a strange story. The people 
had been reading the incorrect translations so long 
that when the translation of Jerome, which later 
came to be known as the Latin Vulgate, because it 
was written in the language of the common people, 
and not in classical Latin, was given to them, they 
would have nothing to do with it. Just as with 
our Authorized and Revised Versions, it seemed 
as though they had two Bibles, and people said, 
"The one that I studied is good enough for me." 
"What right had St. Jerome to change it?" 
"How do we know that his Bible is any nearer 
right than the one we have?" 

They did not know anything about translating 
from one language to another, nor did they under- 
stand that Jerome had not translated just from 
one copy of the manuscript, but had compared 
several copies, to make sure of the changes. 

The Latin Vulgate was the best Latin trans- 
lation up to that time, and though there were mis- 

3° 



THE LATIN VULGATE 



takes in it, after two or three hundred years people 
became as fond of it as their ancestors were of 
the old version, and for more than a thousand 
years this was the Bible of the people. The coun- 
cil of the Roman Church decreed that it was cor- 
rect and the only Bible. During these years all 
translations of the Bible, instead of being made 
from the old Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, 
were made from the Vulgate, and even to-day the 
Bible in use in the Roman Catholic Churches is 
to a large extent a translation from this version. 

Many of the Christians who lived at the same 
time as Peter, John, and Paul, wrote books about 
the Church and the teachings of Christ. Some of 
these may have heard Christ teach, but, after all 
the men who had heard Christ were dead, there 
were those who heard or read the first copies of 
Paul's letters, or the first copies of the Gospels. 
When they wrote books about the Bible or books 
about other things, they often copied certain verses 
from these first copies. These verses became part 
of their books, but they did not know that some 
day a copyist might make a mistake in one of 
those very verses, and that after the first copies 
were lost people would go to their books to prove 
whether the copyist was right or not ; but that was 
what happened. So many of the New Testament 
verses were copied or quoted that if all the Bible 
verses found in these books were put together we 
would have nearly the whole of the New Testa- 



3 1 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



ment; this gives us another way of proving 
whether the copyists or translators have made any 
mistakes. 

Since the Epistle of Barnabas says, "He came 
not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance," 
and Clement of Rome, who knew Paul, says in his 
epistle, "As ye judge ye shall be judged; with what 
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you 
again;" and Polycarp, a pupil of John, uses nearly 
forty quotations from the New Testament; people 
who are studying the early writings find these quo- 
tations a great help in proving the correctness of 
certain verses that are different in different manu- 
scripts. 

Class Work. — Let each member of the class 
make a small scroll. Flag sticks may be cut to the 
proper length, or unpainted lead-pencils used. Let 
the paper be cut into squares four inches across and 
pasted together to make a strip twenty or twenty- 
four inches long. On this strip verses may be writ- 
ten, two columns to a square. The strips should 
then be pasted to the pencils and rolled up as a 
scroll. 

Suggestive Helps. — Small scrolls with the 
books of the Pentateuch printed in the Hebrew 
may be secured from W. H. Dietz, 107 Dear- 
born Street, Chicago, or the Sunday School Com- 
mission, New York. 



32 



Chapter IV 



EARLY TRANSLATIONS 

When St. Jerome translated the Bible into 
Latin, the larger part of the Christian Church 
lived in the Latin-speaking countries. But the 
missionaries carried the gospel to other countries; 
wars brought many changes in the Roman world, 
and the Latin was, or came to be, an unknown lan- 
guage to the common people in many places; yet 
it was a thousand years before there was really 
another translation of the Bible, although there 
were many translations of parts of it into many 
languages. Sections of the Latin Vulgate were 
translated into the German language in the latter 
part of the eighth century, but there was no com- 
plete translation till the fifteenth century. 

Though England had no complete Bible be- 
fore the days of Wycliffe, attempts were made 
from very early times to present the Scriptures in 
the language of the people, and the story of these 
ancient translations from the Latin manuscripts 
before us forms certainly one of the most interest- 

3 33 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



ing though not the most important portions of the 
history of the English Bible. 

An old story says: "It is now twelve hundred 
years since, on a winter night, a poor Saxon cow- 
herd boy lay asleep in a stable of the famous Ab- 
bey of Whitby. Grieved and dispirited, he had 
come in from the feast where his masters, and 
some even of his companions, during the amuse- 
ments of the night, had engaged in the easy, allit- 
erative rhyming of those simple early days. But 
Caedmon could make no song; 'Being at the feast, 
when all agreed for glee sake to sing in turn, he 
no sooner saw the harp come toward him, than 
he rose from the board and returned homeward.' — 
(Account of Caedmon in Bede's Eccl. Hist.), and 
his soul was very sad. Suddenly, as he lay, it 
seemed to him that a heavenly glory lighted up 
his stable, and in the midst of the glory One ap- 
peared who had been cradled in a manger six hun- 
dred years before. 

" 'Sing, Caedmon/ He said, 'sing some song 
to Me.' 

" 'I can not sing,' was the sorrowful reply; 
'for this cause it is that I came hither.' 

" 'Yet,' said He who stood before him, 'yet 
shalt thou sing to Me.' 

" 'What shall I sing?' 

" 'The beginning of created things.' 

"And as he listened a divine power seemed to 
come on him, and words that he had never heard 



34 



EARLY TRANSLATIONS 



before rose up before his mind.* And so the 
vision passed away. But the power remained with 
Caedmon, and in the morning the Saxon cowherd 
went forth from the cattle-stalls transformed into 
a mighty poet! 

"Hilda the abbess heard the wondrous tale, 
and from one of those Latin manuscripts she trans- 
lated to him a story of the Scriptures. Next day 
it was reproduced in a beautiful poem, followed 
by another and another as the spirit of the poet 
grew powerful within him. Entranced, the abbess 
and the brethren heard, and they acknowledged 
the 'grace that had been conferred on him by the 
Lord.' They bade him lay aside his secular habit 
and enter the monastic life, and from that day for- 
ward the Whitby cowherd devoted himself with 
enthusiasm to the task that had been set him in 
the vision. 'Others after him strove to compose 
religious poems, but none could vie with him, for 
he learned not the art of poetry from men, neither 
of men, but of God.' In earnest, passionate words, 
which yet remain, he sung for the simple people 
of the creation of the world, of the origin of man, 

*The words that came to the sleeper's mind are recorded by 
King Alfred. They begin: 

Now must we praise 

the grandeur of Heaven's kingdom ; 

the Creator's might, 

and His mind's thought ; 

glorious father of men, 

the Lord, the Eternal, 

who formed the beginning. 

35 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



and of all the history of Israel ; of the Incarnation, 
and Passion, and Resurrection of Christ, and His 
Ascension; of the terror of future judgment, the 
horror of hell pains, and the joys of the kingdom 
of heaven.' " 

Other fragmentary and imperfect translations 
followed; notable among these was the translation 
of the Monk Baede. His translation of the Gos- 
pel of John was finished on his deathbed. Patter- 
son Smythe, in "How We Got Our Bible," de- 
scribes it thus: 

"The names of Eadhelm and Egbert are over- 
shadowed by that of a contemporary far greater 
than either. 

"It was a calm, peaceful evening in the spring 
of 735 — the evening of Ascension Day — and in 
his quiet cell in the monastery of Jarrow an aged 
monk lay dying. With labored utterance he tried 
to dictate to his scribe, while a group of fair-haired 
Saxon youths stood sorrowfully by, with tears be- 
seeching their 'dear master' to rest. 

"That dying monk was the most famous 
scholar of his day in Western Europe. Through 
him Jarrow-on-the-Tyne had become the great 
center of literature and science ; hundreds of eager 
students crowded yearly to its halls to learn of 
the famous Baede. He was deeply versed in the 
literature of Greece and Rome ; he had written on 
medicine, and astronomy, and rhetoric, and most 
of the other known sciences of the time; his 'Ec- 

36 



EARLY TRANSLATIONS 



clesiastical History' is still the chief source of our 
knowledge of ancient England; but none of his 
studies were to him equal to the study of religion, 
none of his books of the same importance as his 
commentaries and sermons on the Scripture. Even 
then, as he lay on his deathbed, he was feebly dic- 
tating to his scribe a translation of St. John's Gos- 
pel. 'I do n't want my boys to read a lie,' he said, 
'or to work to no purpose after I am gone.' 

"And those 'boys' seem to have dearly loved 
the gentle old man. An epistle has come down 
to us from his disciple Cuthbert to a 'fellow 
reader' Cuthwin, telling of what had happened 
this Ascension day. 'Our father and master, whom 
God loved,' he says, 'had translated the Gospel 
of St. John as far as What are these among so 
many, when the day came before our Lord's Ascen- 
sion? 

" 'He began then to suffer much in his breath, 
and a swelling came in his feet, but he went on 
dictating to his scribe. "Go on quickly," he said, 
"I know not how long I shall hold out, or how 
soon my Master will call me hence." 

" 'All night long he lay awake in thanksgiving, 
and when the Ascension Day dawned he com- 
manded us to write with all speed what he had 
begun.' 

"Thus the letter goes on affectionately, de- 
scribing the working and resting right through the 
day till the evening came, and then, with the set- 

37 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



ting sun gilding the windows of his cell, the old 
man lay feebly dictating the closing words. 

" 'There remains but one chapter, master,' 
said the anxious scribe, 'but it seems very hard 
for you to speak.' 

" 'Nay, it is easy,' Baede replied; 'take up 
thy pen and write quickly.' 

"Amid blinding tears the young scribe wrote 
on. 'And now, father,' said he, as he eagerly 
caught the last words from his quivering lips, 
'only one sentence remains.' Baede dictated it. 

" 'It is finished, master!' cried the youth, rais- 
ing his head as the last word was written. 

" 'Ay, it is finished!' echoed the dying saint; 
'lift me up, place me at the window of my cell, 
where I have so often prayed to God. Now glory 
be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy 
Ghost!' and with these words the beautiful spirit 
passed to the presence of the Eternal Trinity." 

The next important translation was King Al- 
fred's, whose great desire was that every English 
boy might be able to read the Bible in his own 
language. He, like Baede, translated the Gospels. 
He also began the translation of the Psalms. 

Perhaps some one will wonder why, if parts of 
the Bible were translated into English, it was nec- 
essary for so many translations to be made. A 
comparison of the Lord's Prayer as translated into 
the Anglo-Saxon, which was then the language, in 
the time of King Alfred, and three hundred years 

38 



EARLY TRANSLATIONS 



later, will show that the changes in the English 
language were so great that it would be necessary 
to translate it into a new English. 

Here is the Lord's Prayer of King Alfred's 
time, and side by side with it the Lord's Prayer 
in early English three hundred years afterward: 

"Uren Fader dhis art in heofnas, "Fader oure that art in heve, 

Sic gehalged dhin noma, I-halgeed be thi nome, 

To cymedh dhin ric, I-cume thi kinereiche, 

Sic dhin uuilla sue is in heofnas Y-worthe thi wylle also is in 

and in eardho, hevene so be it on erthe, 

Vren hlaf ofer uuirthe sel vs to Our iche-days-bred gif us today, 

daeg, And forgif us oure gultes, 

And forgef us scylda urna, Also we forgifet oure gultare, 

Sue uue forgefan sculdgun vrum, And ne led led ows nowth into 
And no inleadh vridk in cost- fondyngge, Auth ales ows of 

nung al gef rig vrich from if le . ' ' harme, 

—From "How We Got Our Bible." So be hit. ' ' 

Alfred also engaged in a translation of the 
Psalms, which, with the Gospels, seemed the fa- 
vorite Scriptures of the people; but, unlike his 
great predecessor, Baede, he died before his task 
was finished. 

In the tenth century parts of the Bible were 
translated for reading in the Churches, but these 
translations were intended rather to explain the 
meaning than to give the exact words of the Bible. 

"For example, a centurion was a 'hundred- 
man ;' a disciple as 'Leorning cnight,' or 'learning 
youth;' 'the man with the dropsy' is translated as 
'the water-seoc-man ;' the Sabbath as 'the reste 
daeg' (rest day), and the woman who put her 

39 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



mites in the treasury is said to have cast them into 
the 'gold-hoard.' " 

It took such a long time to make a copy of 
the Bible and it cost so much that not many people 
owned their own Bibles. The Church of Rome 
had become very powerful and very wicked, and 
the Church authorities did not want the people 
to read the Bible for themselves. They said the 
priests would read it for them and explain it. In 
1229 the Church Council passed a law forbidding 
any one but the priests to read the Bible. 

Class W ork. — Have a speed contest. See who 
can correctly copy in printing the largest number 
of verses, beginning with Matthew 5:1, in ten 
minutes. Estimate at the rate of the most rapid 
workers how long it would take to copy the book 
of Matthew. 

Suggestive Helps. — Have copies of the Lord's 
Prayer as found on page 39 placed in parallel col- 
umns on the next page of the roll. 



40 



Chapter V 



THE BIBLE OF WYCLIFFE 

After the tenth century the many wars in 
England gave little time for any one to think of 
Bible translations. The Norman conquest placed 
the Norman priests in the Churches. Of course, 
they had no use for the Anglo-Saxon translations 
for themselves, nor were they interested in having 
these translations made for the people. 

Then, too, the settlement of these new people 
in England brought a new language. The Anglo- 
Saxon language was much changed by the incom- 
ing of these Normans, and the English language 
was really being formed by a combination of the 
two languages. 

The Church of Rome was at the summit of its 
power, and practically ruled the world. The 
Bible was an unknown book to the people, and the 
Church authorities wanted to keep it so; for, if 
the people could read the Bible they would find 
out how wicked the priests were and how wicked 
they were making the Church. 

Not only was this true in Rome, but England 
also was under the power of the Roman Church, 

4i 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



and in England, as in Rome, people could, by pay- 
ing money to the Church, buy the right to be as 
wicked as they wished, and do many things that 
were a great dishonor to the Church and disobe- 
dient to God's Word. This was called buying 
indulgences. 

But not every one was deceived by the Pope 
and the priests, and all over the world men were 
beginning to feel that it was time to fight the 
Church if that were necessary to make the Pope 
and the priests follow God's Word. 

In England John Wycliffe said that the way 
to do this was for every one to read the Bible 
and know for himself what God said; then, he 
said, the people would insist on a different Church. 
But there was no Bible that the people of Eng- 
land could read. 

Wycliffe knew that both the rulers and the 
priests would be his enemies if he translated the 
Bible for the people; but he was not afraid, for 
he knew that it was right. 

He worked quietly, using the Latin Vulgate, 
consulting as many other copies as he could secure. 
He went to the best Latin scholars for help in 
making his translations correct, and to the best 
English scholars for help in the use of the best 
language. 

When his translation was partly completed he 
was summoned for trial to the Blackfriars' Mon- 
astery in London. Many of his friends had be- 



42 



THE BIBLE OF WYCLIFFE 



come afraid and deserted him; for even the king 
was his enemy. 

In the midst of the trial an earthquake shook 
the building. His friends said God was proving 
that Wycliffe was right and the priests wrong. 
His enemies themselves were terrified, but would 
not give up the trial. Several charges were 
brought against him, but his worst crime was 
translating the Bible into English, "making it more 
open to laymen and women than it was wont to 
be to clerks well learned." 

After a three days' trial the teachings of Wyc- 
liffe were condemned and he was excommunicated 
from the Church. 

He returned to his home at Lutterworth, and 
there, with the help of his friends, completed his 
translation of the Bible about the year 1382. 

Soon after he finished this, while at a vesper 
service in the church, he was stricken with palsy, 
and died on New Year's Day, 1384. 

The Bible of Wycliffe was a very careful trans- 
lation from the Latin Vulgate ; but as he could not 
read the Greek or Hebrew manuscripts, and prob- 
ably could not have gained access to them if he 
could have read them, he did not know that there 
were errors in the Latin. His Bible, even though 
in English, would not be very easy to read now. 

In this translation Matthew 3: 1-6 reads: "In 
thilke dayes came John Baptise preachynge in the 
desert of Jude, saying Do ye penaunce: for the 



43 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 

TYNDAtE'S VERSION. 101 

Specimen from Wychjje. 



(Luke ii. i-n.) 

Jbrsotbe ft was bon in tbo bapes, a 
maunbement went out fro Caesar Buoust 
tbat ill tbe worlb scbulbe be biscru?eb 
ZTbfs first Clecru^tnge was maab of C?r?ne 
inetice of (Tir\?e, anb allemen wenten tbat 
tbei scbulbe make profesdounecb bp him- 
self in to bis cite. Sotblp anb 3oeepb 
stiQbebe up fro (Balilec of tbe cite of 
1Fla3aretb in to 3ube, in to a cite of Bauitb 
tbat is clepib JBebleem, for tbat be was 
of tbo bouse anb mesne of Bauitb, tbat 
be scbulbe fcnowlecbe wttb flDar? witb 
cbilb spousib wpf to b?m. 

Sotblp it was bon wbanne tbei weren 
tbere tbe bapes weren fulfilleb tbat sbe 
scbulbe bere cbilb. anb sbe cbilbibe ber 
firste born sone anb wlappibe bpm in 
clotbis anb putteb b?m in a craccbe, for 
tber was not place to b?m in tbe com?n 

& tablet. —From "How We Got Our Bible." 



44 



THE BIBLE OF WYCLIFFE 



kyngdom of hevens shall neigh. Forsothe this 
is he of whom it is said by Isaye the prophete, 
A voice of a cryinge in desert, Make ye redy 
the wayes of the Lord, make ye rightful the pathes 
of hym. Forsothe that ilke John hadde cloth of 
the heeris of cameylis and a girdil of skyn about 
his leendis; sothely his mete weren locustis and 
hony of the wode. Thanne Jerusalem went out 
to hymn, and al Jude, and al the cuntre about 
Jordan, and thei weren crystened of hym in Jor- 
dan, knowlechynge there synnes." 

From this we see that there are no divisions 
into verses. The verse divisions are first found in 
the German Bible, 1560, and were made by Rob- 
ert Stephens, a celebrated editor of the Greek Tes- 
tament. 

There are, however, the same chapter divisions 
as the Bible of to-day, these having been made 
shortly before this time by Cardinal Hugo. 

The Bible of Wycliffe was very costly, as it 
required about ten months to make one copy of 
it, which then sold for forty pounds, about two 
hundred dollars in our money. 

In spite of the difficulties of copying and the 
high cost, this Bible was widely circulated. Peo- 
ple who could not afford to own a copy of the 
Bible would sometimes buy a few sheets, or bor- 
row a Bible, paying as much as a load of hay 
for the privilege of reading the Book for an hour 



45 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



a day. People memorized certain chapters and 
verses, and recited them on public occasions. 

But not alone must the cost of the book be 
considered: even the study of the English Bible 
was done at a great risk, as the circulation of the 
Book had been forbidden. This had so little 
effect that the next step was to forbid the trans- 
lation of the Bible into English. Still the people 
would not give up their Bibles. Many of them 
were excommunicated or imprisoned; some were 
even burned with copies of their Bibles hung 
around their necks; yet one hundred and seventy 
copies have been preserved to this day. Many of 
them have very interesting inscriptions. One con- 
tains the name of Henry VI, another of Richard 
the Crookbacked, Duke of Glouchester; one be- 
longed to Henry VIII, and one to Henry VI. The 
inscription of one says that it was presented to 
Queen Elizabeth as a birthday gift by one of her 
chaplains. 

Through that Book the people had come to 
know God, the absolute power of the priesthood 
was broken, and neither torture nor death could 
take that Bible from the people. 

Class Work. — Let each Junior select which 
part of the Bible he would choose if he were 
obliged to pay a load of hay for the privilege of 
reading it for one hour. Read for ten minutes, 
and estimate about how many chapters one could 
read in an hour. 



46 



Chapter VI 



THE BIBLE OF TYNDALE 

In Germany is a little old town that is scarcely 
known and perhaps would never be heard of in 
these days were not that this town of Mentz was 
the home of Johann Gensfleisch or, were we to say 
it in English, John Gooseflesh. 

You do not know him? That is not strange; 
for, with such a name, who would not at least 
make an effort to change it. Johann did, so, and 
took his mother's name, which was Gutenberg. 
There is a story told that, while Johann was a 
boy, still bearing the old name, as he was at play 
in the woods, he cut some letters from the bark 
of a tree. Not long after this, being left at home 
alone, he was entertaining himself by arranging 
these letters to spell his name. By accident one 
dropped into a jar of purple dye that stood near. 
Forgetting that the dye was hot, Johann quickly 
picked it out; but it burned his fingers, and he 
dropped it. This time it fell on a white skin, and 
as he again picked it up he saw on the skin in a 
beautiful color the print of the letter. If he were 

47 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



like many boys of to-day he would have tried other 
letters, and perhaps have spelled his name in those 
beautiful letters, forgetful of what might happen 
when his mother saw it. Whether he did this or 
not, is not known; but that he did not forget it 
is proven by the fact that it was this same Johann 
Gensfleisch, or Johann Gutenberg, who thirty 
years later, about the year 1450, invented the art 
of printing and the printing-press, and it is said 
that the very first book that came from the press 
was a Latin Bible. 

Gutenberg was a poor man, and it took money 
to make the press, even after he had thought out 
the plan of the type and the press, for the type 
was made of brass and cut by hand. 

As the story runs, he went into partnership 
with Peter Schoffer, a copyist, who wrote beauti- 
fully and who designed the letters for the type, 
and John Fust, of Mainz, who supplied the money. 

As soon as Fust had learned the secret of the 
invention and saw that it would succeed, he de- 
manded of Gutenberg the money he had put into 
the business. At this time they had made no 
money, and John could not pay it. Fust then 
seized the press and blocks and continued the busi- 
ness as his own. 

The rapidity with which the books were 
printed, and the exact resemblance of one to an- 
other created great astonishment and aroused sus- 
picion. It began to be whispered that Fust was 

48 




IE GUTENBERG PRESS, ON WHICH THE FIRST BIBLES 
WERE PRINTED 



THE BIBLE OF TYNDALE 



in league with the devil, who helped him to multi- 
ply copies of the Bible. 

This is the foundation of the story of the John 
Faust who sold himself to the devil for wealth, 
which is so often found in German poetry and 
stories. 

The invention of printing almost made a new 
world, for it made books and an education possible 
for every one. 

It had taken ten months to copy the Wycliffe 
Bible, which sold for forty pounds, or about two 
hundred dollars of our money, while to-day one 
single firm is issuing Bibles at the rate of one 
hundred and twenty copies an hour, or about two 
a minute, and a Testament in paper cover can be 
bought for a cent. 

About the time that Gutenberg began working 
out in movable type the suggestion of the purple 
letter, occurred another notable event that had a 
large influence in the story of our Bible — the con- 
quest of Constantinople by the Turks. This city 
was the center of Greek learning, and the scatter- 
ing of its scholars through Europe awakened an 
interest in the study of the Greek language. This 
was called the new learning, and those who be- 
came students of Greek found that there were 
many very valuable books of which they had 
known nothing. Among other books they found 
copies of the Septuagint Version of the Old Tes- 
tament and the manuscripts of the New Testa- 

4 49 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



ment. These copies were not very old, but they 
were copies of manuscripts older than their Latin 
Vulgate and were therefore very interesting. 

The leaders in the Church were greatly inter- 
ested in the discoveries of Greek books and in hav- 
ing these translated into English. 

Erasmus, a teacher in the University of Cam- 
bridge, became one of the greatest Greek scholars 
of his day. About this time he completed a Greek 
Testament from comparison of the most ancient 
manuscripts at his command. 

There was, among the students in the Cam- 
bridge University, a young man named William 
Tyndale, a great admirer of the Greek teacher 
Erasmus. Always interested in the Bible study, 
Tyndale became very enthusiastic over the new 
opportunities which a knowledge of the Greek af- 
forded him. He wanted every one else to have 
what he had, and urged all to study the Bible. "If 
God spares my life," he once said to an opponent, 
"I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know 
more of the Scriptures than thou dost." Some 
people, in quoting this, say that he said he would 
cause that every boy should know more of the 
Bible than the Pope did. 

But if the plow boy is to know the Scriptures 
he must have them in his own language. The 
Hebrew, the Greek, or the Latin will be of no 
use to him. 

Fired with a desire to give to the English peo- 

5° 



THE BIBLE OF TYNDALE 



pie a Bible in the English language, Tyndale ap- 
pealed to Tunstal, the Bishop of London, who 
was a patron of the new learning, to be allowed 
to translate the Bible in the Episcopal Palace and 
under his supervision. 

Tunstal, however, had no such thought; he 
approved of the classics being translated into Eng- 
lish, but not the Bible, and informed Tyndale that 
there was no room in the palace to carry on that 
work. 

Tyndale, however, was not discouraged. He 
found a room elsewhere, and for a year went on 
with his translation. We owe it to his generous 
host that we have a picture of the six months spent 
by Tyndale with him: "He studied most part of 
the day and of the night at his book; and he would 
eat but sodden meat by his good will, nor drink 
but a single beer. I never saw him wear linen 
about him during the space he was with me." 
During that time men were imprisoned and put 
to death for reading the writings of Luther and 
the Bible of Wycliffe. He saw that the authorities 
of the Church would have no mercy toward an 
English Bible, and if he was to complete his trans- 
lation he must become an exile from his own coun- 
try; so in 1524 he left England, never to return. 

He first went to Hamburg. Here, in great 
poverty and constant danger of discovery and ar- 
rest, he completed his translation; the next year 
he took his manuscript to Cologne and in greatest 

5 1 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



secrecy placed the precious copy in the hands of 
the printer. 

He thought his secret had been well kept, but 
in some way the suspicions of a priest named 
Cochlaeus were aroused. Making friends of some 
of the printers, Cochlaeus treated them to wine; 
this made them forget their promise, and in an- 
swer to his question they told him about the Bible 
that was on the press. 

Cochlaeus at once notified the magistrates of 
this dreadful conspiracy and insisted that a guard 
be immediately stationed about the printers' shop; 
also that the sheets which had come from the press 
be seized. At the same time he sent a message 
to the English Bishop, to warn him. 

"Peter Quentel," says the historian, u who was 
engaged to do the mechanical work, had run 
through the press a large number of the sheets 
required for the modest edition of three thousand 
copies, when word was brought to him that ene- 
mies of the Reformation had obtained from the 
Cologne Senate an order prohibiting the printing." 

Tyndale's friends, who were on the watch, had 
in some way found out that the printers had turned 
traitors, and even before the message of Cochlaeus 
had reached the magistrate they had sent word 
to Tyndale, who rushed to the shop, secured his 
manuscript, the printed sheets, and even some that 
were in type, and fled to Worms. 

Here he again went to work and revised and 

52 



THE BIBLE OF TYNDALE 



completed his translation, secured its printing, and 
gave to the world the first copy of the entire New 
Testament printed in English in the year 1526. 

The message which Cochlaeus had sent to 
England had warned the Church officials, and Tyn- 
dale knew they would guard every port to keep 
this Bible out of the country; so he printed one 
edition in a smaller size, that it might more easily 
be kept out of sight ; also that it might not be rec- 
ognized, as the description sent to England by 
Cochlaeus had been of a larger book. 

Bibles could not openly be shipped to England, 
as every incoming vessel was searched; but they 
were concealed in sacks of flour, bales of cloth, 
casts, and in every other way that was possible. 

Soon they began to appear in England in large 
numbers. Thousands of copies were seized and 
burned, but others kept coming to take their 
places. 

The people were so eager to have a Bible which 
they could read that they resorted to all sorts of 
plans to hide their copies. There is in Chicago 
to-day a Bible belonging to a Bohemian minister 
of which the following story is told: 

During the time of great religious persecution 
in Bohemia, a woman hearing that the soldiers 
were approaching her home, and having but a 
few minutes in which to conceal her precious Bible, 
quickly placed it in the dough which she was 
kneading. When the soldiers arrived she was in- 

53 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



nocently placing her bread in the oven, and, al- 
though they made a careful search, the unique 
hiding-place of the Bible was not discovered. 

By the time the loaf was baked, the officers 
were gone, and the Bible unharmed was taken 
from the bread. 

While this particular Bible was baked in Bo^ 
hernia, doubtless many English Bibles were baked, 
buried, worn in the clothing, and in every possible 
way concealed from the officers of the law. More 
severe orders were given to keep them out of the 
country, but still they came. 

As the people came to know about them they 
clamored for them. It is said that some men of 
wealth were so eager for a copy that they were 
willing, if necessary, to give a hundred thousand 
pieces of money in exchange for one. The poor 
people, for whom the translation had been espe- 
cially prepared, were as hungry for the books as 
the wealthy, and the king and his counselors were 
as eager to secure the volumes as the people. 
However, the object of the latter was to get hold 
of the books only that they might destroy them. 

Bonfires were made of the copies secured by 
the authorities. In London, Oxford, and Antwerp 
many volumes were thus destroyed. Suggestions 
were made to an English merchant named Pak- 
ington trading in Antwerp to buy up secretly all 
the copies he could find. 

At length Bishop Tunstal himself sent for 



54 



THE BIBLE OF TYNDALE 



Master Pakington, owner of one of the trading 
vessels, and asked him if he thought it would be 
possible to buy up the entire edition of the Bible 
before any more copies were sent out of Germany. 

Pakington, who was a friend of Tyndale, 
thought it a fine idea and agreed to take charge 
of the money and to personally attend to buying 
every copy that could be found. 

" 'My Lord/ said he, 'if it be your pleasure, 
I could do in this matter probably more than any 
merchant in England; so if it be your lordship's 
pleasure to pay for them — for I must disburse 
money for them — I will insure you to have every 
book that remains unsold.' 

" 'Gentle Master Pakington,' was the reply, 
'do your diligence and get them for me, and I will 
gladly give you whatever they may cost, for the 
books are naughty, and I intend surely to destroy 
them all, and to burn them at St. Paul's Cross.' " 
Pakington went to Tyndale and asked him to 
sell him Testaments. Tyndale was indignant till 
the explanation was given that by means of the 
high price offered for the books by those who 
would destroy them, a much larger edition could 
be printed, and the good work of spreading knowl- 
edge of the Bible would then be carried on, and 
by the aid of the very men who sought to stop 
his work. The copies were furnished, and with- 
great delight Pakington paid the money over to 
Tyndale and destroyed the Bibles. This money 



55 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



not only made it possible for Tyndale to pay his 
debts, but to print a much larger edition of the 
Bible, and soon Bishop Tunstal discovered that 
the Bibles were coming into England more rapidly 
than ever. 

A second time he paid Master Pakington 
money to buy up every Bible, and again it was 
paid to Tyndale, and more Bibles were issued. 

At last they became so numerous that the 
Bishop gave up trying to destroy them; but the 
people were forbidden to read them, and perse- 
cuted if found owning them. This was useless. 
The Bible had come to stay and the people had 
learned its value. They dared persecution and 
even death, but would not give up their Bible. 

Being unable to prevent the people from read- 
ing the Bible, the anger of the Bishop against 
Tyndale increased. He was watched, enticed from 
the house, and finally seized and thrown into a 
wretched prison or dungeon. After much suffer- 
ing he was put to death, but the Bible had come 
to the people of England to stay; it is his monu- 
ment. 

Class Work. — Have Luke 2:1-4 copied on 
manila sheet. Let Juniors read, then copy on 
paper, and compare with Bible of to-day. 



56 



Chapter VII 



BIBLES BETWEEN TYNDALE'S AND 
THE KING JAMES VERSION 

The dying prayer of Tyndale was, "Lord, 
open the King of England's eyes." Even before 
he thus prayed, his prayer was being answered. 
The English Bible had come to stay. Henry VIII 
saw this, but did not wish to admit that he had 
been defeated in his effort to prevent the entrance 
of the Bible, in the language of the people, into 
England — true, it was the Bishop of London 
who had persecuted Tyndale and publicly burned 
his Bible, but he was only carrying out the instruc- 
tions of the king. That he might at least appear 
to control this matter, Henry promised the people 
that if they would agree to stop reading the Bible 
of Tyndale, which he called a "heretical Bible," 
he would give them one that would be "more cor- 
rect," made by learned Catholic men. 

Miles Coverdale was directed to prepare this 
Bible. But Coverdale was not a Greek scholar, 
nor even a man of great learning. The best he 
could do, as he stated in his preface, was to use 
the Latin Vulgate and some of the later transla- 

57 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



tions. His New Testament was really the transla- 
tion of Tyndale, which the king had called heret- 
ical; but the king did not know this. This Bible 
was issued a year before the death of Tyndale. 

In 1537 a friend of Tyndale issued an edition 
of the Bible, which, with a very few changes, was 
the Tyndale Bible. He knew that because of his 
friendship for Tyndale this Bible would not be 
accepted if it was known that he had translated 
it; so it was published under the name of Mat- 
thews, and it was known as the Matthews Bible. 

This Bible met with great favor, and a year 
after the death of Tyndale, Archbishop Cramner, 
one of Tyndale's most bitter enemies, said, speak- 
ing of the Matthews Bible, that he liked it "bet- 
ter than any translation hitherto made,"* and that 
he would rather see it licensed by the king than 
receive a thousand pounds. The friends of Tyn- 
dale must have thought this a great joke, and their 
amusement and pleasure must have been still 
greater when the king actually sanctioned this pub- 
lication. 

But the joke had not reached the end yet. 
While the Matthews Bible had received the com- 
mendation of the king and the Archbishop, many 
of the clergy were indifferent because it was not 
large enough, nor elaborate enough to suit them. 
Again Coverdale was employed; this time to pre- 
pare a revision of the Matthews Bible. This was 

* "Cranmer's Letters," page 346. 

58 



FROM TYNDALE TO KING JAMES 



to be a large Bible printed in elaborate form. 
Paris offered better opportunities for fine printing 
than did London. Coverdale, with his helpers, 
went to Paris to have this work done. When it 
was partially finished the persecutions of the Prot- 
estants known as the Inquisition broke out, and 
Coverdale fled to England, taking the finished 
copy, the manuscript, the press, and even the ex- 
pert French printers with him. The interrupted 
work was completed in 1539, and Henry VIII de- 
clared this, known as the Great Bible, to be the 
Authorized Bible, to be read by the English peo- 
ple, and it was so recognized till 1568. 

In the front of this Bible was an elaborate 
picture, part of which represented "Henry the 
VIII on this throne with a copy of 'the Word of 
God' in each hand. On one side he is presenting 
the book to Cranmer and another bishop, while 
the priests stand by. On the other side he is giv- 
ing the book to Cromwell and the lay peers."* 

And this is really the Bible of Tyndale which 
the King of England is giving to the priests and 
the people. 

On the title-page of a Latin edition there also 
appeared the formal sanction of Tunstal, the very 
Bishop who had tried to buy up all of the Tyndale 
Bibles in Germany and burn all that reached Eng- 
land. 

God had really answered Tyndale's prayer, 

*"Our English Bible." N. W. Tobie. 

59 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



"Lord, open the King of England's eyes," by 
making him give the Bible to the English people, 
even though he did not recognize it as the trans- 
lation of Tyndale. 

The real cause of the interest of Henry VIII 
in the translation of the Great Bible was that he 
had entirely separated the Church of England 
from the Church of Rome, and he, not the Pope, 
was the head of the Church. 

On the death of Henry VIII he was succeeded 
by his son Edward VI, and during his reign the 
Church of England was still further separated 
from the Church of Rome. It was while Edward 
was king that a Book of Common Prayer was is- 
sued. This, with some changes, is still used in 
the Church of England. From this book comes 
the version of the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our 
trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against 
us," which was the translation found in the Great 
Bible, the translation of Tyndale, and which is 
still used by many people who do not know that 
they are using the prayer from Tyndale's Bible. 

The reign of Edward VI was short, and he 
was succeeded by Queen Mary, who was a very 
ardent Catholic. The Protestants were persecuted, 
slain, or driven from the country, and the English 
Bible banished so far as the royal power could 
banish it. 

Many Protestants fled to the continent. Cov- 
erdale and other scholars found refuge in Geneva, 

60 



FROM TYNDALE TO KING JAMES 



Switzerland, the home of Calvin. Here they 
again made a translation of the Bible. The Great 
Bible was too large, and many long words had 
been substituted in it for shorter ones of the same 
meaning. 

Then, too, some manuscripts had been found, 
older than those to which Tyndale had had access. 
This new Bible was known as the Genevan Bible 
and was the first English Bible printed in the Ro- 
man type. It was arranged according to the pres- 
ent chapter divisions, as some of the earlier ones 
had been, and for the first time contained the pres- 
ent verse division, which was the work of Stevens 
in his Greek Testament published in 1 55 1. It 
also was the first edition of the Bible to use italics 
to indicate the words not found in the original 
manuscripts, but needed to complete the sense or 
form of the sentence. 

When Elizabeth became Queen of England, 
Protestantism was restored. Indeed, on her en- 
trance to London, we are told: "The procession 
has just arrived at 'the little Conduit in Chepe,' 
where one of those pageants, the delight of our 
forefathers, is prepared. An old man in em- 
blematic dress stands forth before the queen, and 
it is told Her Grace that this is Time. 'Time,' 
quoth she, 'and Time it was that brought me 
hither.' Beside him stands a white-robed maiden, 
who is introduced as 'Truth, the daughter of 
Time.' She holds in her hand a book on which is 

61 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



written, 'Verbum veritatis/ the Word of truth, 
an English Bible, which she presents to> the queen. 
Raising it with both her hands, Elizabeth presses 
it to her lips, and then laying it against her heart, 
amid the enthusiastic shouting of the multitude, 
she gracefully thanks the city for so precious a 
gift. It was a good omen for the future of the 
Bible, which had been almost a closed book in 
the preceding reign."* 

Three months later the refugees from Geneva 
returned home, bringing with them the Genevan 
Bible, sometimes called the Breeches Bible, be- 
cause Genesis 3 : 7 reads that Adam and Eve 
"sewed fig leaves together and made themselves 
breeches." This was dedicated to Queen Eliza- 
beth. 

While the marginal notes in this Bible were 
strictly Calvinistic, its convenient size, simplicity of 
form, and accuracy made it the Bible of the peo- 
ple, even though the authorities of the Church of 
England issued what was known as the Bishops' 
Bible, put out "under the authority of the Church." 
The Great Bible was still used in the Churches. 

Next in order of time comes the Douay or 
Roman Catholic Bible. The Catholic Church did 
not admit the need of a Bible in the language of 
the people, but the English Bible of the Protes- 
tants had created a demand on the part of the 
Catholic people for one which they could read. 

*"Hqw We Got Our Bible." Smythe. 

6l 



FROM TYNDALE TO KING JAMES 



If they would have a Bible, the authorities of 
the Church claimed that it must be one translated 
under the authorities of the Catholic Church, with 
notes and comments by Roman Catholic officials, 
according to their doctrines and customs. 

They refused to use either the Greek or He- 
brew manuscripts, but made a very literal trans- 
lation from the Latin Vulgate. This is still the 
Bible of the Catholic Church; the form of ex- 
pression has since been modified somewhat, but it 
is still far from the classical English of the Prot- 
estant Bible. 

In these days of many translations of the Bible 
there must have been much confusion, for, though 
one version may have been accepted and even 
authorized by the king or queen and the Church, 
still outside of the Catholic Church many people 
would hold to the Bible which they had been 
using, so that there were many different Bibles in 
general use. But the Bible of the English-speaking 
nations, whichever translation was used, was very 
largely the work of one heroic, simple-minded, 
scholarly man, William Tyndale. 

Class Work. — Make a list of six translations 
of the Bible between the time of Tyndale and 
1611, and tell why each was so called. 

Which of them were in reality the Bible of 
Tyndale ? 



63 



Chapter VIII 



THE AUTHORIZED VERSION 

During the reign of Elizabeth the growth and 
development of the Puritan party in England cre- 
ated opposition on the part of the Church of Eng- 
land. At times the strife was serious, but during 
the latter part of the reign it apparently quieted 
down. 

When James VI of Scotland became James I 
of England each party hoped to secure his favor. 
Being a Scotchman, he had grown up among Pres- 
byterians, and this gave the Puritans ground for 
the hope of approval. 

James, however, was more of a politician than 
a churchman and soon saw that the High Church 
best favored his kingly assumption. All this 
caused much dissension between the two religious 
parties. 

To secure conformity, if harmony was impos- 
sible, James called a Religious Conference to meet 
at Hampton Court in 1604. Here the king 
showed his attitude by allowing the Puritans no 
consideration, or even courtesy, while every favor 
was shown the High Church representatives, 

64 



THE AUTHORIZED VERSION 



Dr. Reynolds, president of the Corpus Christi 
College, Oxford, of the Puritan party, however, 
succeeded in getting the floor long enough to pro- 
pose a new translation of the Bible. The pro- 
posal apparently met with no favor and was lost 
sight of; but not by the king. 

The Bishops' Bible was the Bible of the High 
Church at this time, and the Genevan of the Puri- 
tans. The king did not like the political princi- 
ples of the latter. He believed in the divine right 
of kings, and did not relish the marginal comment 
on Exodus i : 17-19 in the Genevan Bible, which 
read, "Their disobedience to the king was lawful, 
though their dissembling was evil," and other such 
comments. 

Then, too, the idea of being the patron of an 
English Bible for all people pleased his vanity, 
for well he knew it was an opportunity to enhance 
the glory of his name. 

Whatever his motive, his methods were excel- 
lent ; and while he himself had nothing to do with 
the actual translation, he displayed his ability in 
so organizing his translators as to give the world 
a Bible that shall stand as a monument of scholarly 
skill and literary achievement so long as the world 
shall last. 

He selected from the best scholars of the na- 
tion fifty-four men, among whom was Dr. Reyn- 
olds, to whose proposition this translation was due. 

These men were divided into six groups; two 

5 65 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



of these groups were to carry on their work at 
Oxford, two at Westminster, and two at Cam- 
bridge. 

In addition to this committee, certain other 
men noted for their learning were to be consulted 
at the pleasure of the committee. To each of the 
six groups certain portions of the Scripture were 
assigned. Each member of a group was to make 
an independent translation of the section assigned 
to that group, and when these were completed the 
translations were compared by the committee as a 
whole, revised, and a form agreed upon. This 
copy was then sent to the other groups in turn, 
who reviewed and returned it with their criticisms 
and comments. The original groups now went 
over their work, revising their translation in ac- 
cordance with these criticisms and comments where 
they felt such changes should be made. 

When the entire Bible was thus revised, three 
copies were made, one at each place, and delivered 
to a committee of twelve chosen from the larger 
committee. This committee made a final examina- 
tion of the Book, after which it was sent to the 
Bishop of Winchester and Dr. Miles Smith, who 
wrote introductions to each book. 

The work of the committees was now finished 
and the Book as a whole turned over to the Bishop 
of London, who gave the finishing touches. 

Fourteen, some say fifteen, rules had been is- 
sued to the committee to govern the translation, 

66 



THE AUTHORIZED VERSION 



and while not all of these were fully carried out, 
many were, and had a large place in the final re- 
sult, not only of the translation, but in the literary 
style. 

The Bishop's Bible was to be the basis of trans- 
lation and only altered when necessary, while the 
best of the other translations were to be used when 

r 

they agreed better with the accessible Greek and 
Hebrew manuscripts. 

The old ecclesiastical words were to be re- 
tained instead of those in common use; as, the 
word Church not to be translated congregation, 
as was the common term at that time, etc. 

The chapter and verse division were to be 
altered only when absolutely necessary. 

Marginal comments were to be made only 
when necessary to explain a Greek or Hebrew 
word. 

On doubtful passages, or where the translators 
disagreed, suggestions and helps were to be sought 
from men of learning everywhere. 

All clergymen were permitted to send the re- 
sults of their personal study and investigation of 
difficult passages to the committee. 

These and other rules show the great care that 
was taken to make this translation as nearly accu- 
rate as possible. 

In 1611 the Bible, since that time known as 
the Authorized or King James Version, was pub- 
lished, with the title; 

67 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



"The HOLY BIBLE, conteyning the Old 
Testament, AND THE NEW, Newly Translated 
out of the Originall tongues : and with the former 
Translations diligently compared and revised by 
his Majesties speciall Commandment. Appointed 
to be read in Churches. Imprinted at London by 
Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most excellent 
Majestie Anno Dom. 1611." 

While this version of the Bible has ever been 
known as the "Authorized Version," it was in fact 
never authorized by royal proclamation, by order 
of council, by act of Parliament, or by vote of 
Convocation, and whether the words "appointed 
to be read in churches" in the title were used by 
the order of the committee or the will of the 
printer is not known. 

But the general acceptance and use of this Bible 
soon made it in reality, if not officially, the 
"Authorized Version." Until the American Re- 
vision of 1 90 1 no better translation has ever been 
made. In simple dignity and melody its English 
is still unexcelled. For almost three centuries it 
was the Bible of the English-speaking people. Its 
simple, majestic Anglo-Saxon tongue, its clear, 
sparkling style, its directness and force of utter- 
ance, have made it the model in language, style, 
and dignity of some of the choicest writers of the 
last two centuries. 

"The foundation of this translation being the 
Bishops' Bible, which was so largely a reproduc- 

68 



THE AUTHORIZED VERSION 



tion of the language of Tyndale and Wycliffe, it 
is not surprising to find the strong, vigorous Eng- 
lish of these heroic times in the King James Ver- 
sion; and yet with it everywhere is noticeable, 
wrought into the very fabric of the language, the 
choicest speech of the days of Shakespeare, Spen- 
cer, and Bacon." 

The study of the pure, vigorous English used 
in Tyndale's version and repeated in the King 
James Version, has played a wonderful part in 
fixing the form of the English language of to-day. 

"During the residence of Benjamin Franklin in 
Paris he was one time in attendance at a party 
where the Bible was being discussed in a sarcastic 
manner. One nobleman asserted in a loud voice 
that the Bible was totally devoid of literary merit. 
Turning to Franklin, whose opinion was very 
highly valued, he asked him what he thought of 
it, to which he replied that he was hardly prepared 
to give them a suitable answer, as his mind had 
been running on the merits of a book which he 
had just fallen in with at one of the bookstores; 
and as they alluded to the literary character of 
the Bible, perhaps it might interest them to com- 
pare with that old volume the merits of the new 
prize. All were eager to have the doctor read a 
portion of the new book. In a very grave man- 
ner he took the book from his pocket, and, with a 
propriety of utterance, read to them a poem. The 
poem made a deep impression. The admiring 

6 9 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



listeners pronounced it the best they had ever 
heard. 

" 'It is beautiful!' said one. 'It is sublime!' 
was the unanimous opinion. They all wished to 
know the name of the new book, and whether 
what had been read was a fair specimen of its con- 
tents. 

" 'Certainly, gentlemen,' said the doctor, smil- 
ing at his triumph, 'my book is full of such pas- 
sages. It is no other than your good-for-nothing 
Bible, and I have merely read to you the prayer 
of the prophet Habakkuk.' " 

THE BIBLE OF 1911. 

As a fitting tribute for the three hundredth an- 
niversary of the King James Bible the Oxford Uni- 
versity Press issued a Commemorative Edition of 
this Bible, which by judicious editing was brought 
up to date as far as possible without sacrificing its 
dignity and its individuality, and freed from ar- 
chaic grammatical forms and errors. 

This work was done by a committee selected 
largely from the theological schools of the United 
States and Canada. 

The purpose of this committee has been to 
conserve as far as may be the dignity and dis- 
tinctive language of the Bible, all of the literary 
beauty and religious value of the old version, while 
correcting defects caused by the changes in the 



70 



THE AUTHORIZED VERSION 



language and the discovery of more correct texts. 
They have not revised it, but simply edited it, that 
those who still love and cling to this version may 
have it in as perfect a form as possible. 

The hope of this committee is that the Bible 
of 191 1 will prove a worthy successor of the Bible 
of 1611. 

April 23, 191 1, was very generally observed 
as the Tercentenary of the King James Bible. 

After three hundred years William I. Haven 
says: 

"It took the King James Bible thirty years to 
replace its predecessors in the affections of the peo- 
ple of the early half of the seventeenth century. 
Its own existing versions may replace it before we 
are half through the twentieth century. But now, 
on its three hundredth birthday, it is the universal 
English Book. 

"It has given immemorial fame to the king 
with whose name it is associated. 

"It has reconciled the forces that he brought 
to desperate discord. 

"It is studied by millions in institutions of the 
Christian Church undreamed of in days of James I. 

"It is read in lands that were unknown when 
it first appeared. 

"It is issued annually in editions of hundreds 
of thousands from mighty presses, where the first 
hand printings were few in number. 

7i 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



"It has shaped governments and nations that 
have arisen since it came from the hands of the 
translators. 

"It is the mightiest of all the versions of the 
Sacred Scriptures since the Vulgate, and it rivals 
that great Bible in world-wide influence and bene- 
diction. 

"We can best honor it on its tercentenary by 
deepening our acquaintance with its sublime teach- 
ings, shaping our lives by its counsels, comforting 
and strengthening our hearts by its promises and 
revelations, and joyously surrendering ourselves to 
Him who is its central revelation, our Lord and 
Savior, Jesus Christ." 

Class Work. — Each member of the class find 
and write what he considers the most beautiful 
verse in the Bible. Have the prayer of Habakkuk 
read aloud. 



72 



Chapter IX 



ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS RECENTLY 
DISCOVERED 

To-day it would seem as though the Author- 
ized Version of the Bible must always have been 
loved and revered as it now is. It is true that it 
soon won its place in the hearts of Christian peo- 
ple because of its great superiority over the other 
Bibles then in existence; but it was as true in 1611 
as it is to-day that people love the Bible which 
they have known and read from childhood, and 
that it seems almost a desecration of God's Sacred 
Word to suggest that the Bible which they have 
is not infallible. Many felt about this King James 
Version just as the Latin-speaking people had felt 
about the Latin Vulgate, or as many of the present 
day have felt about the Revised Version. No 
Bible, however, since the Latin Vulgate won its 
way into the hearts of the people or met the ap- 
proval of Biblical scholars for so long a time as 
did this version. 

Not many years after its publication a manu- 
script much older than any to which the revisers 

73 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



had had access was discovered and presented by the 
owner, Cyril Lucas of Alexandria, to Charles I, in 
1629. This was later placed in the British Mu- 
seum in London and is one of the three oldest 
Bibles in existence. 

Because the word manuscript is so long is pos- 
sibly the reason why these old writings have be- 
come known by the name Codex, and because this 
one came from Alexandria it is called Codex Alex- 
andrinus. It is written on vellum in the Uncial 
or inch-long letters. There are some spaces be- 
tween words or sentences, and larger capitals are 
used at the beginning of sentences; also, red ink 
is sometimes used in the first line of a book. All 
of these help to prove the time when this manu- 
script was written, which must have been in the 
fifth century. 

"The persecutions and wars of the Middle 
Ages," says a recent writer, "destroyed such docu- 
ments in large numbers. Fire, flood, and fanati- 
cism combined to wipe out these perishable treas- 
ures of Christendom. But some were sheltered in 
out-of-the-way fastnesses, in monasteries upon the 
mountain side, in the sacred precincts of carefully 
guarded Churches, and in the palaces of kings. 
They were given as presents ; they were borrowed, 
bought, and stolen; their intrinsic value was al- 
most always underestimated, and they were sub- 
jected to inexcusable risks of being hopelessly lost. 
Fortunately, however, there were some haunts un- 

74 



ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS 



reached by the demons of destruction, wherein 
these treasures were preserved." 

Early in the nineteenth century, two hundred 
years after the Authorized Version was printed, 
Bible students began to talk about a revision of 
the Bible. Other manuscripts besides the Alexan- 
drian Codex had been discovered, and while they 
were of later date, they were still earlier than 
those used in the Authorized Version. 

The demand, however, was not great, and the 
interest was rather in the study of the manuscripts 
and the search for earlier ones than in a trans- 
lation. 

Another of the three oldest manuscripts is 
known as the Codex Vaticanus or Vatican Manu- 
script. This has been since 1475 m tne Vatican 
Library at Rome; but it might as well have been 
lost during these years, for it has been so carefully 
guarded that no one has been able to gain access 
to it or make use of it. 

Dr. Tregelles about the middle of the last cen- 
tury made an attempt to examine the manuscript. 
He was allowed to look into it; but not until his 
pockets had been searched and all pens and pen- 
cils taken away was he allowed to open the book. 
Two priests were detailed to watch him and keep 
his attention distracted so that he could not ex- 
amine it too intently, and if he did attempt to 
study any part, the book was snatched away from 
him. 



75 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



Later, however, this book was made accessible 
to students through the facsimile copies made un- 
der the direction of Pope Pius IX. This manu- 
script by many is considered the oldest in existence, 
dating not later than 340 or 350 A. D., just about 
as long after the original manuscripts of the New 
Testament were written as it was between the 
Authorized and Revised Versions. It is not quite 
complete, having lost some pages of both the Old 
and New Testament. 

The original writing has evidently been largely 
traced over, probably by some one who feared the 
ink would fade and leave the earliest writing in- 
distinct, but the few words not traced are very 
clear even after fifteen hundred years. 

It is written in the Uncial letters, with no 
spaces between the words or sentences. In some 
places letters have been omitted to save space, a 
line across the top indicating this. Thus, God 
was written GD ; man, MN; or sometimes the final 
letter or syllable would be omitted entirely, so 
that, if written in English, it would look like this: 

INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORD 
ANDTHEWORDWASWITHGDAND 
THEWORDWASGDTHESAMEWAS 
INTHEBEGINNINGWITHGDALL 
THINGSWEREMADETHROUGHHIM 
ANDWITHOUTHIMWASNOTANY 
THINGMADETHATHATHBEENMADE. 
76 



ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS 



This is the most complete manuscript of the 
entire Bible in existence. 

While Dr. Tregelles was trying, in every way 
to get access to this manuscript, Tischendorf, a 
German student of the Bible texts, was searching 
in the National Library of France. Here he dis- 
covered a strange-looking manuscript of Ephraim 
of Edessa, a writing of the twelfth century. The 
queer appearance of this manuscript had already 
made people think that it was not an ordinary 
manuscript, but must be a second writing. 

The vellum was so costly that when a writing 
began to fade or was supposed to have lost its 
value, it was rubbed off so far as possible with a 
sponge, and another book written on top of it. 
Such a book was called a palimpsest or rescriptus. 
This one is called the Ephraim Rescriptus. Al- 
though it had been known for a hundred years 
that this book was a palimpsest, no one had tried 
to find out what the first writing was till Tischen- 
dorf discovered it. He was hunting for old 
manuscripts and w^as not satisfied till he found 
chemicals which would remove the second writing 
and in a measure restore the original. Then he 
found that he had indeed discovered a treasure. 
To be sure, in the second writing no attention had 
been paid to the pages — some were upside down, 
and they were all mixed up. But it was a manu- 
script of the Bible of the fifth century. Not all 



77 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



of the Bible was there, but much of it, and some 
parts of it were a very fine copy. 

The manuscript had been brought to France in 
1550, but its great value was never known till the 
discovery of Tischendorf. 

But Tischendorf could not be satisfied even 
with this; he felt sure there must be older manu- 
scripts hidden away in the old monasteries of the 
East, and in 1844 he made his first trip to the 
lands of the Bible in search of these. While in 
the Library of the Convent of St. Catherine, on 
Mt. Sinai, he, almost accidentally, made a great 
discovery. He saw in the waste-paper basket a 
number of pages that he at once recognized as a 
very ancient manuscript. The librarian told him 
two baskets of similar sheets had been used for 
making fire, and allowed him to examine those in 
the basket. He found them to be pages of the 
oldest manuscript then known. He was allowed 
to take about forty of these pages, as they were 
intended only for the fire. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, he displayed too much joy over this, and the 
suspicions of the monks were aroused. They at 
once became ignorant of the existence, even, of 
other pages, and Tischendorf was obliged to leave 
without securing any more. 

He returned to Germany, made known his dis- 
covery., but carefully concealed the name of the 
place where he had found the manuscript. In this 
he was very wise, for his description awakened 

78 



ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS 



much enthusiasm, and the English Government at 
once sent out a scholar to buy up any valuable 
Greek manuscripts that he could find. 

Tischendorf feared that the man might suc- 
ceed in finding the manuscripts where he himself 
had failed, and was greatly relieved when the 
scholar returned home, announcing that his search 
had been unsuccessful. 

Tischendorf tried, through friends in Egypt, 
to secure the remainder of the manuscript, but 
failed. The monks had learned the value of the 
book in their possession and would not part with 
it at any price, even though it was useless to them. 

On his third visit to the East, in 1859, Tischen- 
dorf again spent some time at the Convent of St. 
Catherine, trying in every way to get a clue to 
the manuscript. 

He was about to give up in despair and re- 
turn home. On the evening before his departure 
he was walking in the garden with one of the 
stewards. As they went in, the steward casually 
invited him to his room for some refreshments. 
Scarcely was the door closed when he remarked, 
referring to the object of Tischendorf's visit, "I 
too have an old manuscript" (or words to that 
effect) . "Perhaps you would like to look at it." 
He took from a shelf a volume and placed it on 
the table. Tischendorf had learned his lesson. 
He turned the leaves with interest, but manifested 
no particular pleasure in the book. 



79 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



Controlling himself as long as courtesy de- 
manded, he asked, on leaving, if he might take 
the book to his own room and look it over. Reach- 
ing his room, he closed the door. No longer was 
he the calm, unmoved man of the last half hour. 
He gave way to his joy in a way that might have 
surprised the steward had he seen him, for he held 
in his hands one of the most valuable, if not the 
most valuable manuscripts of the Bible now known, 
older than any he had ever seen. His own words 
are : 

"In the presence of the found treasure it was 
not possible for me to sleep. I gave way to my 
transports of joy. I knew that I held in my hands 
one of the most precious Biblical treasures in ex- 
istence, a document whose age and importance ex- 
ceeded that of any I had ever seen during twenty 
years' study of the subject." 

Tischendorf tried to persuade the monks that 
it would be a gracious act to present this manu- 
script to the Supreme Head of the Greek Church, 
but was successful in securing only a temporary 
loan of it. It was carried by Bedouins on a camel's 
back from Mt. Sinai to Cairo, Egypt. Here, with 
the help of two -of his countrymen, Tischendorf 
copied many lines of the Codex, and noted more 
than twelve thousand changes by later hands. In 
October, 1859, he was allowed to take it to the 
Czar, merely for the purpose of publication. On 
his way to Russia he showed his treasure to sev- 

80 



ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS 



eral of the crowned heads of Europe. In No- 
vember he laid it before the Czar and the Holy 
Synod of St. Petersburg. Tischendorf was then 
permitted to use it in Leipzig in the preparation 
of the Codex. 

Later, through the influence of the Czar of 
Russia, the manuscript was purchased and placed 
in the Library at St. Petersburg. This manuscript 
is called the Sinaiticus, because it was found on 
Mt. Sinai. 

The New Testament is more complete than in 
the Vatican Manuscript, but there is more of the 
Old Testament missing. This manuscript is on 
very fine vellum made of the skin of an antelope. 
It is beautifully written in the uncials, with no di- 
visions of words or markings of any kind. It 
shows evidence of having been corrected several 
times, and its beauty is marred by these corrections. 
The vellum, the style of writing, and everything 
about it proves that it was written not later than 
350 A. D. 

These four old manuscripts, so old that they 
may be first copies of the original manuscripts, 
gave a new enthusiasm to the study of the Bible 
texts, and a comparison of these early manuscripts 
greatly awakened the interest of translators and 
led to several individual translations of the New 
Testament. 

Class Work. — Select a short paragraph and 
let each member of the class copy this ten times, 
6 81 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



using the last copy as a copy each time. Then 
let each compare his last copy with his first and 
see which is more nearly correct. 

Let one member read his last copy, if it dif- 
fers in any way from the others; find how many 
of the others agree in their copy. Compare with 
the original, and see whether the one or that on 
which several agree is correct. Why is an early 
manuscript more valuable than a later one? 

Wherein lies the value of having so many 
early manuscripts to compare? 

Or let each copy one verse, using an illuminated 
initial letter. 



82 



Chapter X 



THE REVISED BIBLE 

With the entire world of English-speaking 
people reading one Bible, the language of which 
no literature in any age has ever excelled, it would 
seem that the Bible had reached a state of abso- 
lute perfection. 

As time moved on, however, the publication 
of forty dictionaries indicated many changes in the 
English language; moreover, the discovery of 
early manuscripts led to a comparison of texts 
showing some differences. The spirit of progress 
suggested that a new translation was needed. 

The discovery of the Sinaiticus Manuscript by 
Tischendorf seemed to be the last incentive neces- 
sary to make Bible students feel that the time had 
come for another revision of the Bible. The rea- 
sons for this, as given by these men, are : 

" ( i ) Since 161 1 the four oldest and most im- 
portant Greek manuscripts have become accessible, 
copies of very ancient translations have been found, 
and writings of early Christian fathers have been 
collected and used as never before. (Preface to 
R. V. of 1881.) 

83 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



" (2) Modern scholars know how to use these 
sources as seventeenth century men did not. The 
science of textual criticism was merely in its in- 
fancy in 161 1. 

"(3) Greek and Hebrew are much better un- 
derstood now. Because of imperfect knowledge 
of these languages the King James Version con- 
tains many obscure and incorrect renderings. 

"(4) The English language has changed; 
many words used three hundred years ago being 
obsolete."* 

The words of Tyndale to the Bible scholars 
of his day, given in his first preface to his Bible, 
are, "That if they perceive in any place that the 
version has not attained unto the very sense of 
the tongue, or the very meaning of Scripture, or 
have not given the right English word, that they 
should put to their hands and amend it, remem- 
bering that so is their duty to do/' were a message 
to all Bible scholars of all ages as well. 

To-day the words "Charity suffereth long and 
is kind," convey the thought of continued alms- 
giving, even though the recipient may not seem to 
be deserving or grateful, if one does not know 
that the twentieth century meaning of charity was 
unknown in the time of King James and that the 
meaning of the Greek word translated "charity" 
is our word "love." The word "prevent" in 
1 Thessalonians 4: 15 and many other places, in- 

*"Our English Bible." 

84 



THE REVISED BIBLE 



stead of meaning "to hinder" or "stop," meant in 
the time it was translated "to precede," "to go," 
or "put in front of." 

Realizing the growth and changes of the Eng- 
lish language, and knowing as no one but students 
of the ancient texts could know, that there were 
errors in the translation of the Authorized Ver- 
sion of the Bible, and that to-day there were words 
that would more perfectly express the shades of 
meaning carried by the Greek words, these men 
strongly urged a new translation of the Bible, and 
the leaders in the Churches began to feel that the 
time for this had come. 

In the Convocation of 1870 Bishop Wilber- 
force proposed that a committee be appointed to 
consider a revision of the Bible and report on the 
same. Four months later this committee met for 
work in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster 
Abbey. In this committee were representatives of 
all denominations, the Church of England, Meth- 
odist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and many others. 
Among them were Bishop Ellicott, chairman of 
the committee; Deans Alford and Stanley, Wes- 
cott and Hort, Scrivener, Dr. Eadie, and Arch- 
bishop Trench. 

Across the Atlantic was another company, 
called together for the same purpose, making in 
all nearly one hundred men who were engaged in 
this translation. 

Besides the four great manuscripts referred to, 

85 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



these translators had access to nearly four thou- 
sand manuscripts of the whole or parts of the 
Bible. They also had several early translations 
unknown to the translators of 1611. 

Then, too, the advance made in the study of 
the Greek and Hebrew languages had brought to 
notice and proved the value of many ancient writ- 
ings containing quotations from the Scriptures. 
These were of very great assistance in deciding 
the correct reading when the early texts differed. 

When at work the revisers were seated at long 
tables. Before each man was a sheet of paper 
with a column of the Authorized Version printed 
in the middle, leaving on each side a wide blank 
margin. On the left hand the changes in Greek 
text were made. On the right the changes in the 
use of English words. 

After the prayer and reading of the minutes, 
the chairman reads part of the passage on the 
printed sheet and asks for any suggested changes. 

Suppose the passage under discussion to be 
Matthew 1: 18-25. "At the first verse a mem- 
ber, referring to the notes on his sheet, remarks 
that certain old manuscripts read 'the birth of 
Christ' instead of 'the birth of Jesus Christ.' Dr. 
Scrivener and Dr. Hort state the evidence on the 
subject, and after a full discussion it is decided 
by the votes of the meeting that the received read- 
ing has most authority in its favor; but, in order 
to represent fairly the state of the case, it is al- 

86 



THE REVISED BIBLE 



lowed that the margin should contain the words, 
'Some ancient authorities read "of the Christ." ' 
Some of the members are of opinion that the name 
'Holy Ghost' in same verse would be better if 
modernized into 'Holy Spirit,' but as this is a mere 
question of rendering, it is laid aside until the 
textual corrections have been discussed. The next 
of importance is the word 'firstborn' in verse 25, 
which is omitted in many old authorities. Again 
the evidence on both sides is fully stated, and the 
members present, each of whom has already pri- 
vately studied it before, vote on the question, the 
result being that the words 'her firstborn' are 
omitted. 

"And now, the textual question being settled, 
the chairman asks for suggestions as to the ren- 
dering, and it is proposed that in the first verse 
the word 'betrothed' should be substituted for 
'espoused,' the latter being rather an antiquated 
form. This also is decided by vote in the affirma- 
tive, and thus they proceed verse by verse till the 
close of the meeting, when the whole passage, as 
amended, is read over by the chairman."* 

When a portion of the revision is completed, 
it is gone over a second time and is then sent to 
America, revised by the American committee, and 
returned to England, where it is again gone over 
by the original committee. It is now revised the 
fifth time for the improvement of the literary form, 
* "How We Got Our Bible. " 

87 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



and in some cases there was a sixth and seventh 
revision. 

The rules laid down for these committees were : 

1. To introduce as few alterations as possible, 
consistent with faithfulness, into the text of the 
Authorized Version. 

2. To limit, as far as possible, the expres- 
sion of such alterations to the language of the 
Authorized Version. 

3. That each company should go twice over 
the work, and at the second revision no change 
should stand unless approved by a two-thirds ma- 
jority of those present. 

For more than ten years the work went on, 
and on November 11, 1880, the New Testament 
Committee assembled in the Church of St. Martin- 
in-Fields for a special service of prayer and thanks- 
giving for the completion of their work. The 
spirit of the committee is shown in this prayer "of 
thanksgiving for the happy completion of their 
labors — of prayer that all that had been wrong 
in their spirit or action might mercifully be for- 
given, and that He whose glory they had humbly 
striven to promote might graciously accept this 
their service, and use it for the good of man and 
the honor of His holy Name."* 

The first edition of this New Testament was 
issued in England on the 17th day of May and 

* ' ' How We Got Our Bible. ' ' 



88 



THE REVISED BIBLE 



in America on the 20th of May, 1881. "The ex- 
citement in New York and other cities was intense, 
and lasted for a number of days. It is supposed 
that half a million of copies were given to the 
American public on the first day of publication. 
Copies were sold, not only in book-stores and at 
news-stands, but in public conveyances; and many 
were hawked about the streets. The daily press 
published extracts and criticisms. The entire vol- 
ume was telegraphed from New York to Chicago 
for early publication in two of the daily papers 
of the latter city. It is estimated by some that 
3,000,000 copies of the New Testament were sold 
in England and America within the first year of 
its publication."! 

The Old Testament was not completed till 
May 5, 1885 — fifteen years from the time of the 
appointment of the committee. 

When in 161 1 the Authorized Version was 
issued, and for many years after, it met with great 
opposition and criticism. The greatest Hebrew 
scholar of the day wrote to King James, "I would 
rather be torn asunder by wild horses than allow 
such a version to be imposed on the Church," and 
yet this is the version that for more than two hun- 
dred years was the revered Bible of the people 
and still holds a place such as no Bible before or 
since has held. 

t"A Short History of the English Bible." J. M. Freeman, 
D. D. 

89 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



The Revised Bible could not hope to meet 
with a more cordial reception from the Bible- 
loving people, except the scholars. The people 
who were fathers and mothers when the Revised 
Bible came out belonged to a Bible-reading gen- 
eration, a generation who memorized large por- 
tions of the Scripture in the early days of the Sun- 
day schools. Thus the language of the Bible was 
implanted in their hearts and they loved the beauty 
and dignity of its style. It did not seem as though 
its truths could mean the same if expressed in other 
words. 

Many refused to accept the new version; but, 
like the Authorized Version, it is growing in fa- 
vor, although there has not as yet been time to 
tell whether it has come to stay or whether there 
must be another revision. 

This English Edition of the Bible, though sold 
in large numbers, was not satisfactory to the Amer- 
ican committee. Very many of their suggestions 
had been disregarded or appeared only in the mar- 
gin, but they had agreed not to sanction any edi- 
tion except those put out from the University 
Presses of England for fourteen years. 

They were true to their promise; but in the 
meantime the committee was hard at work, and in 
1 90 1, after thirty years of study and work by the 
greatest scholars and theologians of America, the 
American Standard Bible was issued. This is the 
Revised Bible, with the changes recommended by 

90 



THE REVISED BIBLE 



the American committee and others growing out 
of later study. 

This Bible is arranged in paragraph form, 
the verse divisions being merely indicated by fig- 
ures. It is written in the English of to-day. 
Many difficult passages are made clear. For the 
child and young person the simple form of ex- 
pression makes its reading more attractive and its 
great truths more clear. 

Again it must be said, time only can tell 
whether this edition has come to stay or whether 
another will be necessary; whether in the adoption 
of the modern vocabulary and simplicity of ex- 
pression, the dignity and beauty of the former 
translation has been lost, or whether even that is 
compensated for in the increased accuracy and 
clearness. This edition is growing in favor and 
with many has already taken the place of the 
Authorized Version. It is generally recommended 
for use in the Sunday schools and among children, 
and is rapidly becoming the Bible used in the 
Church service. It will be many years before its 
general acceptance will be assured. 

However, whether this general edition con- 
tinues or whether another must come, the marvel 
of it all remains. 

From the Bible of the old record chests of the 
early Church, which contained: 

"I. Some manuscripts of the Hebrew Old 
Testament books; 



9i 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



"II. A good many of the Old Testament 
books translated into Greek because that was the 
language used at that time; 

"III. A few rolls of the Apocrypha, which 
were not considered inspired, but were valued for 
practical teaching; 

U IV. Either the original Gospels, Acts, Epis- 
tles, and the Revelation, or direct copies of them,"* 
— we have to-day over four thousand manuscripts, 
some of them copies of copies of copies to the 
tenth or more times, some of them possibly first 
copies from the original. We have translations 
into the Greek, the Latin, and the English; yet 
a careful comparison of the American Standard, 
the English Revised, the Authorized Bible, the 
Bible of Tyndale, and the Sinaiticus or Vatican 
Manuscript, and many others, reveal the fact that 
God's care alone can account for, that through all 
the ages, with all the copies, by faithful and un- 
faithful scribes, with all the translations down to 
the present day and their influence on later trans- 
lations, the American Standard Bible, the latest 
edition, translated in the light of the Sinaiticus 
and Vatican Manuscripts of the fourth century, 
does not vary in one essential fact, in one vital 
truth, from the Authorized Version, translated 
from the later Greek manuscripts and translations, 
thus proving that throughout all the years God 
has guarded and shielded His own Word, so that 

*"How The Great Book Was Made." 



9 2 



THE REVISED BIBLE 



to-day we are as safe and as sure in saying "Thy 
Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto 
my path" as was David. 

We may know of a surety that Christ was 
making a literal prophecy when He said: "For 
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass 
away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
away from the law, till all things be accomplished" 
(Revised Version), and that Peter knew what 
he meant when he said, "The grass withereth, and 
the flower falleth: but the word of the Lord 
abideth forever" (Revised Version). 

Class Work. — Compare the authorized and 
revised renderings of i Corinthians 13 and Psalm 
23, showing the variations in words but unchanged 
meaning. 



93 



Chapter XI 



THE BIBLE IN CIRCULATION 

The demand for the printed Bible has always 
been great. It is supposed that within three years 
after the publication of the Great Bible in 1539, 
no less than twenty-one thousand copies were 
printed. Between 1524 and 161 1, 278 editions 
of Bibles and Testaments in English were printed. 
In 1 6 1 1 , 1 6 1 2, and 1 6 1 3 five editions of the King 
James Version were published, besides separate 
editions of the New Testament; and we have some 
slight clew to the size of the editions in the fact 
that one person in England has recently collated 
no less than seventy copies of the issues of 161 1; 
yet, after all, these were the days of small things. 

From its foundation in 1804 to the end of the 
one hundred and first year, in March, 1905, the 
British and Foreign Bible Society has issued 192,- 
537,746 copies of the Scriptures, complete or in 
parts, in 390 different languages and dialects. The 
American Bible Society, from its organization in 
18 16 to April 1, 1905, has issued 76,272,770 
Bibles, Testaments, and portions, in 116 different 
languages out of the 489 translations. 

94 



THE BIBLE IN CIRCULATION 



Other Bible societies have issued between 60,- 
000,000 and 70,000,000, while private publishers 
in Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere 
have increased these issues by scores of millions. — 
Report of American Bible Society. 

500,000,000 Bibles Sold 

During the year 1909 there were 11,706,595 
copies of the Bible sold by the principal Bible 
houses alone, but 1,000,000 copies were sold by 
the smaller Bible houses and 6,000,000 by com- 
mercial houses. Last year there were 20,000,000 
copies of the Bible sold, and it is estimated that 
over 500,000,000 copies of the great Book have 
been sold since the invention of the printing-press. 
Over half that enormous number, or about 341,- 
000,000 copies, were sold during the last century. 

A clipping from East and West gives an in- 
teresting computations based upon the number of 
Bibles in circulation in the year 1900: 

u This number he estimates upon good evidence 
to be about 200,000,000 copies. Reckoning the 
average size of the volumes to be 5x6/2x1^ 
inches, he figures up 5,642,260 as the number of 
cubic feet of Bibles in existence. 

"With this enormous bulk could be built a wall 
of Bibles six feet high, which would reach over 
four hundred miles, from New York to Buffalo, 
or from London to Geneva, Switzerland. 

95 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



"If all the paper used in the greatest Book were 
to be taken in one sheet, at the most modest com- 
putation some 518,123 acres would be required. 
Take them volume by volume, and their area 
would cover 1,036 acres. 

"Load them on merchant ships of average 
tonnage ( 1,340 tons) , and a fleet of eighty vessels 
would be required to transport the volumes. And 
it should be remembered that in 1800, only a cen- 
tury ago, the world's stock of Bibles was not more 
than 5,000,000." 

In 1800, four years before the British and 
Foreign Society was founded, the world possessed, 
notwithstanding the fact that no less than 1,326 
editions were printed in the sixteenth century alone, 
only 5,000,000 copies of the greatest of books; 
and judging from the fact that 14,000 families 
in Sweden had not a single Bible, and that 50,000 
inhabitants of Iceland had but fifty copies among 
them, these 5,000,000 must have been very evenly 
distributed. During 1889, thanks to the various 
Bible societies and the wonderful improvement in 
the printing-press, the circulation of the Holy 
Book had multiplied almost thirty times. 

From 1800 to 1900 the population of the 
globe is estimated to have increased two and one- 
third times. During the same period the Bible's 
circulation has increased forty times. 

In 1800 there was one copy of the Bible to 
every one hundred and twenty-eight of the world's 

96 



THE BIBLE IN CIRCULATION 



inhabitants. To-day there is one copy to about 
every seven and one-half inhabitants. 

The First Proposal to print the Engljsh 
Bible in This Hemisphere 

Among the collection in the library of the 
American Bible Society may be seen a facsimile 
of Wm. Bradford's proposals for printing a large 
Bible, as long ago as 1688. It reads as follows: 

These are to give notice, that it is proposed for a large 
house Bible to be Printed by way of Subscriptions, (a 
method usual in England for the Printing of large Vol- 
umns, because Printing is very chargeable) therefore to 
all that are willing to forward so good (and great) a 
work, as the Printing of the holy Bible, are offered these 
Proposals, viz.: 1. That It shall be printed in a fair 
Character, on good Paper, and well bound. 2. That it 
shall contain the Old and New Testament, with the 
Apocraphy, and all to have useful Marginal JNotes. 
3. That it shall be allowed (to them that subscribe) for 
twenty Shillings per Bible: (A Price which one of the 
same volume in England would cost). 4. That the pay 
shall be half Silver Money, and half Country Produce 
at Money price. One half down now, and the other 
half on the delivery of the Bibles. . . . Also, this may 
further give notice that Samuell Richardson and Samuell 
Carpenter of Philadelphia, are appointed to take care and 
be assistant in the laying out of the Subscription Money, 
and to see that it be imploy'd to the use intended, and 
consequently that the whole Work be expedited. Which 
is promised by William Bradford. 

Philadelphia, the i4th of the 1st Month, 1688. 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



The First Printed Bible in the United 
States 

The New Testament, translated into the Indian 
language by Eliot the missionary, was printed at 
Cambridge, Mass., by Samuel Green and Marma- 
duke Johnson, A. D. 1 66 1. The entire Bible in 
the same language, by the same Rev. John Eliot, 
was printed by the same publishers in 1663. The 
Testament was republished in 1680, and the Bible 
in 1685. 

The entire Bible in the German language was 
printed at Germantown, Pa., by Christopher Saur, 
in 1743. Several editions of the German Bible 
were issued subsequently from the same press. 

Action Taken by the National Congress 

Upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
War, all British publications being kept out of the 
country, a great scarcity of the Holy Scriptures 
began to be generally felt, and Dr. Patrick Allison 
and others brought the subject before Congress by 
a memorial in which they petitioned that an edi- 
tion of the Bible might be printed by the Govern- 
ment. The memorial was referred to a commit- 
tee, whose report recognized the importance of 
the Bible to the Nation, but in view of the diffi- 
culty and risk of procuring types and paper, and 
of the uncertain state of affairs, proposed that the 
Committee of Congress should be directed to im- 

98 



THE BIBLE IN CIRCULATION 



port twenty thousand copies of the Bible from 
Holland, or Scotland, or elsewhere. The order 
was accordingly made. 

Early Publications of the Scriptures in 
the United States 

In 1777 the New Testament in English was 
printed in Philadelphia by Robert Aitken; and 
in 1782 the same publisher printed the entire Bible, 
the first English Bible printed in this country. 
This book was recommended by Congress, having 
been first examined by the chaplains, who reported 
favorably on it. 

In 1790 the Douay Bible was printed in Phila- 
delphia. 

In that year the English Bible was again 
printed in Philadelphia by William Young. In 
179 1 it was printed in Worcester, Mass., by Isaiah 
Thomas, and also in Trenton, N. J., by Isaac Col- 
lins, a member of the Society of Friends. 

In the year 1801 Matthew Carey, of Phila- 
delphia, in the preface of a Bible which he then 
published says: "I present this edition of the Bible 
to the public, with a degree of solicitude propor- 
tioned to the magnitude of the undertaking. Hav- 
ing embarked therein a large property and devoted 
my utmost care and attention to it from its com- 
mencement to completion, I find it impossible to 
assume that degree of stoicism necessary to regard 

99 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



with indifference its reception by my fellow- 
citizens. " 

Our Bible Work 
rev. w. i. haven, d. d. 

This is a story about which there is so much 
to tell that I hardly know where to begin. There 
is the story of the great manufactory, where last 
year more than 700,000 Bibles and Testaments and 
various portions of the Scripture were made. This 
manufacturing plant occupies three or four floors 
of the Bible House in New York, a building cov- 
ering a whole block in the heart of the city. Here 
is carried on every process connected with the 
printing and binding and shipping of all kinds of 
Bibles, from the neat little separate Gospels in 
cloth covers, which cost about two cents each, to 
the great folios, elegantly bound, for the pulpits 
of our churches. 

The finest and most rapid presses in America 
are kept busy with this work, besides a host of 
other high-class machines. At this house Bibles 
are printed in Spanish, Swedish, German, Nor- 
wegian, Italian, Danish, Portuguese, French, and 
many other languages and dialects, including a 
number of North American Indian tongues. One 
of the late Bibles printed there is the fourth re- 
vision of the Gilbert Island Bible, and another is 
a New Testament in Bulu. It might be interest- 
ing to have the question open, Where are these 

100 



THE BIBLE IN CIRCULATION 



places and people? A trained force of proof- 
readers and other workers is kept busy, and the 
secretaries are in correspondence with learned 
scholars to see to it that as few errors as possible 
occur in these editions. The American Bible So- 
ciety — which is "our Bible Society" to all the 
Churches — is very proud of its issues of the Scrip- 
tures. 

The printing of the Bible House, however, 
only represents one-half of the publishing interests 
of "our Bible work." It would be too expensive, 
and a waste of time, to bring all the translations 
to New York City, or to this country. So we carry 
on printing and publishing in many different coun- 
tries — in Constantinople and Beirut, where the 
Turkish and Armenian and Greek Bibles, used 
in our missions in Bulgaria, are made and where 
Arabic Bibles, used all over the East, are pub- 
lished; in Shanghai and Foochow, where on mis- 
sion presses hundreds of thousands of Chinese 
Scriptures are made. We also make Bibles in 
Siam, Japan, Korea, Manila, and at other points. 
It is a wonderful picture that comes up to the 
eye if one only tries to see all at once all these 
presses busy in all parts of the world, preparing 
the Scriptures for the peoples of many nations. 

The Translations, — Our Bible Society re- 
sponds to calls from all parts of the missionary 
field for help in translating the Scriptures into new 
tongues, or correcting and revising those already 

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THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



made, where improvement is possible. A number 
of translations are now in progress in China. The 
missionaries appoint scholars to work at these 
translations, which are called "versions, " and the 
Bible Society co-operates with these scholars. No 
matter about the versions that have already been 
made, you want to know what is going on now. 
There is the Bible for the millions of Korea. We 
have translations of the Gospels in five native dia- 
lects in the Philippines. There are a score or more 
of these that are distinct and important in which 
the people have never seen the Word of Life. It 
is to help in this work that a considerable part of 
our Bible collection goes. 

Of the 242 translations of John 3: 16, pub- 
lished in a leaflet by the American Bible Society, 
six are in the languages or dialects of the British 
Isles, sixty-one of the continents of Europe, one 
hundred and fifty-three of Asia and the island, 
thirty-one of Africa, fourteen of the American 
continent. 

The Book Itself. — The Bible is a silent worker, 
reaching many who would not listen to the 
preacher, and who, in some lands, would not dare 
at first to come to the gatherings of the Lord's 
disciples. A traveler in Turkey last winter came 
to a little kahn in a village, where he sought shel- 
ter from the cold. Soon some young men came 
in, and after conversation they discovered that 
the traveler was a Christian. Then they told 



102 



THE BIBLE IN CIRCULATION 



him that they had come across some copies of the 
Bible, and that they had met every week to read 
and study together, and that they had all become 
followers of Jesus. Hundreds of such stories 
could be repeated here, were there room. A little 
monthly paper, the Bible Society Record, tells in 
every issue such incidents of the power of the Di- 
vine Word to reach and save the soul. My story 
could go on and on, like the "Arabian Nights," 
but this glimpse at "our Bible work" must suffice 
for this time. 



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Chapter XII 



MY BIBLE 

"A light unto my feet and a lamp unto my pathway." 

The Bible has ever been the Book of books, and never 
more so than to-day. It has been the slave's book. It 
has been the poet's book. It has been the child's book, 
and its words have mingled with the sweetest accents of 
joy and hope that are lisped by our humanity. It has been 
the creator of countless Good Samaritans. It has been 
the hope and guide of the reformer. It has done more 
by the words "Father, forgive them," to breathe peace 
into the jangling and warring forces of human ambition 
and strife than all the systems of philosophy the world 
ever produced. It lives on the ear like music, whose 
strains can never be forgotten. It lingers in our lives 
like the fragrance of flowers in the halls of our homes. 

Not until the human heart no longer aches with sor- 
row; not until the time comes when there remains no 
more a prodigal to be brought back to the Father's house ; 
not until the time comes when the despairing and deso- 
late call no more for help, until tears cease to flow, until 
love has no task to perform, until the cup of cold water 
is no longer needed to refresh the parched wanderer on 
the highway of life, — not until then will the Bible lose 
its power and beauty, and cease to be enthroned in the 
heart of our humanity. — Geo. H. Ferrier. 

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MY BIBLE 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON THE BIBLE 
In regard to this great Book, I have but to say, it 
is the best gift God has given to man. All the good 
Savior gave to the world was given through this book. 
But for it we could not know right from wrong. All 
things for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be 
found portrayed in it. — From "Speeches, Letters, and 
Addresses." 

THE BIBLE— THE FOUNDATION OF OUR 
DEMOCRACY 

If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our 
country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we 
in our prosperity neglect its instruction and authority, 
no man can tell how sudden a calamity may overwhelm 
us and bury our glory in profound obscurity. — Daniel 
Webster, 

Ulysses S. Grant said : "To the influence of this Book 
are we indebted for all our progress made in true civili- 
zation, and to this Book we must look as our guide in 
the future." 

Grover Cleveland said: "No thoughtful man can 
doubt that to decrease the circulation and use of the Bible 
among the people would seriously menace the highest 
interests of civilized humanity." 

SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BIBLE 

Here he expressed a wish that I should read to him, 
and when I asked from what book, he said: "Need you 
ask? There is but one." I chose the fourteenth chapter 
of St. John's Gospel. He listened with mild devotion 

105 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



and said when I had done, "Well, this is a great com- 
fort." — From Lockhart's account of his last illness in his 
"Life of Scott." 

THE NATION AND THE BOOK 

No nation is better than its sacred book. In that 
book are expressed its highest ideals of life, and no nation 
rises above those ideals. 

No nation has a book to be compared with ours. 
This American nation, from its first settlement at James- 
town to the present hour, is based upon and permeated 
by the principles of the Bible. 

The more this Bible enters into our national life, the 
grander and purer and better will become that life. 

It would be a great blessing if a Bible could be put 
in the hands of every dweller in this country. — From an 
Address by the late Justice Brewer, 

THE BOOK THE QUEEN GAVE AN EASTERN 
PRINCE 

There is a familiar story to the effect that Queen 
Victoria was visited one day by an Eastern prince who 
desired to know the secret of England's greatness. It 
is said that when the question was asked of the queen 
she took a copy of the Bible and, giving it to the Eastern 
monarch, answered, "This is the secret of England's 
greatness." 

THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY AND THE 
BIBLE 

Emperor William of Germany says: "I like reading 
the Bible often, the Bible which stands on the table at 
my bedside, and in which I have underlined the most 

106 



MY BIBLE 



beautiful thoughts. I can not understand why so many 
people occupy themselves so little with the Word of God. 
Who, on reading the Gospels and other passages, is not 
impressed by the simple, loving, proven, and attested 
truth? How could Christ otherwise have set His stamp 
upon the world? 

"In all my thoughts and actions I ask myself what 
the Bible says about the matter. For me it is a fountain 
from which I draw strength and light. In the hours of 
uncertainty and anxiety I turn to this great source of 
consolation. I am confident that many of those who have 
fallen away from God will return in our own time to 
a firm belief, and that many will once more feel a long- 
ing for God. It is indeed the beauty and the blessing 
of the Christian Church that times of strong doubt 
awaken an especial desire for the profession of faith and 
a joyous enthusiasm of belief. I can not imagine a life 
which is inwardly estranged from God." 

Speaking of the Tyndale Bible, published in 
1526, one writer says: 

It was wonderful to see with what joy this Book of 
God was received, not only among the learneder sort 
and those that were noted lovers of the Reformation, but 
generally all England over among all the vulgar and 
common people; and with what greediness God's word 
was read, and what resort to places where the reading 
of it was. Everybody that could bought the Book or 
busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if they 
could not themselves, and divers more elderly people 
learned to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked 
among the rest to hear portions of the Holy Scriptures 
read. 

107 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



The "Gideons, " the association of Christian 
Commercial Travelers of America, have under- 
taken to place a Bible in every room of every 
hotel in America. Over thirty thousand Bibles 
had been placed in August, 19 10, and after the 
election of a secretary to give his time to that 
work they hoped to place one hundred thousand a 
year. 

The following is quoted from a recent peri- 
odical : 

A man says to me, "Is the multiplication-table true?" 
Now, it never occurred to me to doubt it, so I answer 
unhesitatingly, "Yes!" Not long after I find him search- 
ing in the multiplication-table for a formula for the ex- 
traction of Bismuth, and because he can not find it, cry- 
ing out in the bitterness of his soul that the multiplication- 
table is a lie. Now, I would not deny that six times 
seven are forty-two, just because the multiplication-table 
does not give me a chemical formula, or tell me how to 
go to Jamaica ; nor am I ready to throw away the sub- 
lime, spiritual messages of the Bible if I should find that 
it is not a book on botany, that its cosmology is that of 
ancient times, that its history has been colored by a moral 
purpose, or that it contains no definite plan for the or- 
ganization of a Church. 

The fact is the Bible was given me by God to shed 
light on the purity and vileness of my soul; to brace my 
will in the hour of temptation ; to elevate my thoughts 
amid the strife for bread; to lift my drowsy eyes to the 
sunlit summits of faith and prayer; and to send a thrill 
of divine aspiration through a life that is ever becoming 

108 



MY BIBLE 



stupefied amid the murky damps of life's low levels. If 
I seek for a spirit of uncompromising and ringing right- 
eousness, that shall keep me from making a truce with 
wrong, I find it on the pages of Jeremiah. If I look for 
a valuation of life that puts first things first, I follow 
Paul over mountains and seas, and hear him say, "Neither 
count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my 
course with joy." If I look for a pattern of a life truly 
divine, and wish to see what God would do if He were 
a man like me, I walk with Christ around the Sea of 
Galilee. Indeed, it is in the light of His character that 
I interpret the whole Book. 

THE BIBLE OUR MANUAL OF ETHICS 
Prof. H. Lummis 

It is a very satisfactory thing to have a first-rate text- 
book. An arithmetic where the answers are given, that 
has every fourth or even every tenth answer wrong, is 
a source of positive vexation. Any book for study whose 
statements are clear and correct has, so far, high value. 

The Bible, our manual of morals, is in one respect 
unlike many manuals — it is in no wise technical. 

Its words, its statements are simple. Its meaning is 
transparent. Its message appeals to sage and peasant. 

The nations of Christendom have drawn their legis- 
lation largely from it. The reformers of the world's 
later history have here found their foundation for morals. 

Outside of Christendom, in earlier or later times, 
what codes of laws or of morals stand even approxi- 
mately equal to what has been drawn from the Bible? 

In the earlier history of the people of Israel it is evi- 
dent that the requirements of duty were adjusted to a 

109 



THE STORY OF OUR BIBLE 



people comparatively undeveloped — an adjustment par- 
alleled by the difference of requirement in a well-regu- 
lated family between the requirement for the little ones 
and for those who are approaching maturity. 

Yet even these less rigid demands in ethics are higher 
than the demands in the legislation of Egypt or of Baby- 
lon or of Assyria or of Greece or of Persia or of Rome. 

In the higher demands made by the prophets, by the 
apostles, and by Jesus Christ Himself, the world may be 
challenged to produce a parallel. "Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." Match it from any source outside 
Sacred Writ. "Love your enemies." This requirement 
many an upright soul has declared impossible. The love 
required, as is evident by reference to the original, is 
the love, not of affection, but of good-will. The feelings 
do not go out to a disagreeable object kindly. But will 
is supreme. We can will the welfare of our bitterest 
foe. We do will it only as we are seeking to conform 
to the divine law. 

The duties of parents to children happily formulate 
in the following the avoidance of harshness: "Fathers, pro- 
voke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged." 
The duty of children to parents is indicated no less felici- 
tously: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for 
this is right." Clear as crystal! A superb imperative! 



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